A new report shows that the teen market has been the ‘golden child’ for cellular providers in the US. In addition to growing subscribers, teen ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) has been growing higher than that of the overall market. However, pricing pressures and teen cellular saturation are bringing an end to the teen cellular gold rush.

In 2007, the teen market accounted for more than 16 million new subscribers. By 2012, the number of teen subscribers is projected to reach 17 million, a difference of only 1 million subscribers.

Apparently, teens simply use their phones to do more than ‘talking’, from text messaging to purchasing premium content. CNN writes that according to a recent survey by M:Metrics, 47% of teenagers take photos with their mobile device - that’s twice the industry average. Young adults also access social networks, share pictures and videos and browse the mobile Web a lot more than their older, less tech-savvy counterparts.

Since ’smartphones’ such as the BlackBerry are expensive for teenagers, recent mobile devices like the Motorola Q and the Blackjack by Samsung have already pulled smartphone prices down - they’re selling for as little as $100 (with a 2-year contract, of course). It seems as if the price is not the deal breaker for teens, instead it’s the way they can be used.