While iPhone users are free to use any messenger they wish, iMessage still has monopolistic properties.
The key one is that it’s very difficult to convince an iMessage group to use a different app. iMessage isn’t even objectively better — in many cases, other messaging platforms have faster, less buggy, more secure iOS apps with more features than iMessage. (Speaking from extensive experience with iMessage and other apps.)
As a result, iMessage has a stranglehold on Apple users because of Apple’s design goals and business decisions. It’s designed to feel like you need to use it for texting someone. It overrides standard protocols (SMS), doesn’t implement new messaging protocols (RCS), and doesn’t allow any other apps to process text messages. So iMessage has a monopoly on the default carrier-based messaging solution on iOS.
And its group lock-in makes it very hard to choose to use an android, since you’ll have to spend a large amount of social capital to get everyone into a different messaging app.
I would not consider iMessage to have monopolistic properties if it did the following:
- Implemented modern carrier messaging protocols, like RCS.
- Had good apps for other platforms, including android and the web.
- Allowed 3rd party apps to handle SMS/RCS.
But iMessage is a huge benefit to Apple because it keeps people locked into the ecosystem. Not because it’s an excellent messenger. That’s why it’s monopolistic.
> The key one is that it’s very difficult to convince an iMessage group to use a different app.
As someone who managed to convince half the WhatsApp group to migrate to signal where we held out for a couple of months, ended up cross posting so the ones who were left behind didn't miss out and eventually abandoned signal and went back to WhatsApp I can tell you this has very little to do with Apple.
If you surveyed iphone users, I doubt any of them would care about any features you listed. There was article today about ink toner chips, people care that they can't use other toner cartridges in their printers. That is true monopolistic properties and detriment to consumers.
There is literally 2 billion month active whatsapp users which is a direct competitor to imessage and is my default group messaging. There aren't even two billion iphone users.
> iMessage isn’t even objectively better — in many cases, other messaging platforms have faster, less buggy, more secure iOS apps with more features than iMessage. (Speaking from extensive experience with iMessage and other apps.)
Which other app lets me exchange full quality video/pictures?
I agree that iMessage is a huge benefit to Apple because it keeps people locked into the ecosystem more than because of technical merit. I disagree that it is monopolistic, because they don't have a monopoly!
Think about airline mileage programs and status. They keep people locked into the airline's ecosystem. But no single airline has a majority market share, and labeling a dozen active competitors in a market "monopolistic" would make no sense.
You can switch between airlines without having to convince everyone else on your flight to do the same. Also, buying two flights on two different airlines to fly to two separate destinations on two separate days makes much more sense than buying two phones to talk to two different people.
The key one is that it’s very difficult to convince an iMessage group to use a different app. iMessage isn’t even objectively better — in many cases, other messaging platforms have faster, less buggy, more secure iOS apps with more features than iMessage. (Speaking from extensive experience with iMessage and other apps.)
As a result, iMessage has a stranglehold on Apple users because of Apple’s design goals and business decisions. It’s designed to feel like you need to use it for texting someone. It overrides standard protocols (SMS), doesn’t implement new messaging protocols (RCS), and doesn’t allow any other apps to process text messages. So iMessage has a monopoly on the default carrier-based messaging solution on iOS.
And its group lock-in makes it very hard to choose to use an android, since you’ll have to spend a large amount of social capital to get everyone into a different messaging app.
I would not consider iMessage to have monopolistic properties if it did the following:
- Implemented modern carrier messaging protocols, like RCS.
- Had good apps for other platforms, including android and the web.
- Allowed 3rd party apps to handle SMS/RCS.
But iMessage is a huge benefit to Apple because it keeps people locked into the ecosystem. Not because it’s an excellent messenger. That’s why it’s monopolistic.