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WhatsApp is enormous popular in especially Africa and South America because in these parts of the world, SMS messaging is not unlimited like you have nowadays in North America, eastern Asia, and most of Europe. As such, WhatsApp has a rapidly growing user base around the world, and that also explains why Facebook paid US$19 billion to purchase the company.
 
Anyone who buys an iPhone just for iMessage is someone who doesn't deserve to use any technology. It's beyond comprehension why Apple would use resources to enhance something so banal and useless such as an instant messaging app instead of fabricating real features like the ability to force quit all apps at once. Priorities, Apple. Get them straight.

You don't have to "force quit all apps" on iOS. Learns about iOS before talking about it.
 
If you look at
for example, you can see how an Android phone that here where I live can be bought for the equivalent of under $500 beating soundly, on performance, an iPhone that costs nearly twice as much. And it's a nicer phone construction-wise as well, has a better screen, a better camera, better battery life, faster fingerprint reader etc. And of course there are many other great Android phones out there and even faster ones.

It's not that the iPhone is a bad product. I think it's an ok product, although personally I find Android a much more fluid phone OS from the point of view of doing stuff and jumping from something to something else.

But the Porsche analogy doesn't hold. There's no phone for which the analogy would hold. The difference between a premium and ultra-premium car and a normal one is quite large, and it has to be, since you pay many more tens of thousands extra. While Apple overcharges for the iPhone, the baseline is in the hundreds of dollars, so you couldn't get that much more. In my opinion, you generally get a bit less but it's fashion tech so it's a matter of taste.
I stopped watching the video after three minutes because "soundly beating" was nowhere to be found.
 
Doesn't android have a message app?
YEH BUT HARDLY ANYBODY USES HANGOUTS.. THEYRE MAKING AN IMESSAGE COMPETITOR BUT ITS A LITLLE TOO LATE FOR ANDROID I FEEL.. YOU GUYS USE WHATSAPP, OR FB MESSENGER.. I
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Doesn't android have a message app?
YEH BUT HARDLY ANYBODY USES HANGOUTS.. THEYRE MAKING AN IMESSAGE COMPETITOR BUT ITS A LITLLE TOO LATE FOR ANDROID I FEEL.. YOU GUYS USE WHATSAPP, OR FB MESSENGER.. I FORTUNATELY DONT SEE A MASS EXODUS FOR ANDROID MESSAGING APPS.
 
WhatsApp is enormous popular in especially Africa and South America because in these parts of the world, SMS messaging is not unlimited like you have nowadays in North America, eastern Asia, and most of Europe. As such, WhatsApp has a rapidly growing user base around the world, and that also explains why Facebook paid US$19 billion to purchase the company.
Facebook is willing to pay that much because the huge user base is apparently worth something to them. Apple doesn't monetise the same way, and so owning Facebook (or more iMessage users for that matter) won't improve their bottom line at all.

Heck, WhatsApp was losing millions of dollars a year prior to being purchased by Facebook. Why would Apple throw away that much money for no discernible benefit?
 
Facebook is willing to pay that much because the huge user base is apparently worth something to them. Apple doesn't monetise the same way, and so owning Facebook (or more iMessage users for that matter) won't improve their bottom line at all.

Actually, the new additions to iMessage (e.g. sticker packs) seem very oriented towards Apple monetizing it.

Especially perhaps in countries that are already used to such things.
 
Actually, the new additions to iMessage seem very oriented towards Apple monetizing it.
I am not sure Apple takes a cut directly. If I order a Uber through iMessage, Apple doesn't get a cent, right?

The purpose seems to be to make iMessage so useful and sticky that people want to use it over other messaging apps, and by extension, continue using Apple products like the iPhone which these features are confined to.

In that context, I can see the rationale for not wanting to extend iMessage to other platforms. You wouldn't even be able to extend the same APIs to the Android platform, resulting in fragmentation amongst the various devices.
 
Making your stuff that works only on your devices only works if no one else has anything like it. iMessage may have some cute features, but there are other messaging apps out there. Apple's rationale only works when they "wow" people with stuff no one else has (touch screen, etc) or do it so much better than others people would pay through their teeth for it (like the iMacs and iPods did). Don't know if anyone noticed, but their stuff isn't that good anymore -- it's good, but it's not APPLE Good. Based on the cursing my wife was doing last night trying to organize and sync our daughters' music to her device, this is a problem across the board. Stop trying to make them skinny and start making them functional.
 
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I'm a techie nerd -- if iMessage were available for Android, there's a high probability that I would be bouncing back and forth between platforms much more often. The "ecosystem" pressure really is strong.
 
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