Apple has made iMessage a must have texting tool for American teens. The Washington Post wrote a long article in which this phenomenon is analyzed and where Google officially encourages Apple to make iMessage compatible with Android.
The Washington Post has just published a long article devoted to iMessage. This paper follows statements and other documents that were released during the great trial between Apple and Epic.
This highlighted that Apple made a strategic decision a few years ago to limit iMessage to the Apple ecosystem. Craig Federighi, Apple’s chief software officer, said in a 2013 private email: “ (…) I’m afraid that iMessage on Android will simply be used to delete [un] obstacle to iPhone families who want to buy Android phones for their children “. Tim Cook, three years later in another email, said that “ Moving iMessage to Android Will Do Us More Harm Than Help Us “.
It is clear that it works, Apple has managed to create a social network without actually creating one. Android users can exchange SMS / MMS with Apple users, but these messages appear in a different color. This means that a number of iMessage features are not available, such as memojis for example.
IMessage’s culture is clearly embedded in Apple’s larger strategy to tie together its hardware, software, and services in a world dubbed the walled garden which encourages people to pay top dollar for its relatively expensive gadgets and to stay loyal to its brand.
In the United States, this strategy is paying off: among American consumers, 40% use iPhones, but among 18 to 24 year olds, more than 70% are iPhone users (source: Consumer Intelligence Research Partners). This creates social pressure among young people, the equivalent of a feature social network that keeps users locked up.
” The solutions already exist and we encourage Apple to join the rest of the mobile industry. “
Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of platforms and ecosystems at Google, used the Washington Post article to encourage Apple to make iMessage compatible with Android: “ The solutions already exist and we encourage Apple to join the rest of the mobile industry in implementing them. We believe that people should be able to connect with each other without artificial boundaries. It just doesn’t have to be like that. “.
Apple’s iMessage lock-in is a documented strategy. Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this. https://t.co/MiQqMUOrgn
– Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) January 8, 2022
Among the solutions, there is obviously the RCS. It is a kind of improved SMS, the RCS allows to enrich the conversations by adding options such as sending images or videos in high definition, creating group discussions, sharing position, possibility to see if the recipient has read our message and to know if he is currently writing. You are probably already using RCS without realizing it.
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