Shifting Gears - Is it a Usability issue or too Expensive?

Found this article in the BBC headlines and am interested in this quote:

"In fact, the numbers of people not taking and sending pictures, audio and video is growing.

Figures gathered by Continental Research shows that 36% of British camera phone users have never sent a multimedia message (MMS), up from 7% in 2003.

This is despite the fact that, during the same period, the numbers of camera phones in the UK more than doubled to 7.5 million.

Getting mobile phone users to send multimedia messages is really important for operators keen to squeeze more cash out of their customers and offset the cost of subsidising the handsets people are buying.

The problem they face, said Shailendra Jain, head of MMS firm Adamind, is educating people in how to send the multimedia messages using their funky handsets."

Is it really a usability issue? (Yes, one example for Tom Peters where "design matters") or does this go hand in hand with the expense of sending the pictures.

Wasn't there also a news article about the chocolate manufacturers in England finding their sales dropping because the young teenagers were spending their money instead on phone cards. (Can't find the link now, but I'll keep looking.)

Disclosure: I do not own a picture phone. I only use a cell phone for work. I do have relatives who have picture phones and use them, so at the next family gathering I think I'll do some research and see if the cost of sending pictures is a factor.

If you have a picture phone: (1) How easy is it to use and send pictures? (2) Is the charge for sending the pictures a factor in your use?

Drop me a line, I'd be curious to know.