You're not of course. People who use iMessage in Europe are older folks who are not very connected. It starts in school, in workplaces, in groups going out together, travelling together, playing football together, etc. that have a 30-70% Android demographics and simply cannot use iMessage. When you are in 20 such groups you just stop caring about iMessage, especially because image sharing, location sharing, calls etc. all work seamlessly between platforms without having to think about who uses which phone.
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Apple's Rationale for Not Bringing iMessage to Android Revealed in Legal Documents
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1) WhatsApp (by far, unfortunately), 2) Telegram, 3) Signal or Threema
I don't think it's a clear loser, it's just unambitious. Every single iPhone user has iMessage at least. They probably use it if they're talking to other iPhone users. Probably Apple is doing well with iPhone sales and don't want to risk that for a chance at earning revenue through messaging. That's a really competitive field with dedicated players that's hard to profit from, and there's nothing special about iMessage outside its default-ness on iPhones.
Apple Music is pretty successful. Idk the numbers on it for non-Apple users. Apple TV+ isn't. But that seems like a counterexample if anything. You're saying that non-Apple users aren't interested in Apple stuff. Why would iMessage be different? I do agree (strategy-wise) with Apple cross-platforming their media services because that's a less competitive field that Apple has a long history in.
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Yeah, only overseas students etc use WhatsApp here. I was forced to use it to coordinate my Canadian friends wedding party and it was weird and gross. It's only ever used in markets where ubiquitous wifi mitigated non-unlimited texting and cheap data.
Facebook Messenger is more common here than WhatsApp in my experience.
Can you also send live photos, videos, large attachments and do all of this in a group chat? Because this is where the hassle starts and where Whatsapp wins.
No, they don't. It offers no advantage and a) you don't want to switch between messengers depending on the other person's OS, and b) many contacts are in groups anyway, and certainly these are not on iMessage. There's simply not a single reason to use iMessage.
The difference is that messaging is a social feature. Assuming iMessage would have been around years ago and good enough (and yes, that's indeed a big IF given Apple's lackluster implementation), people on iOS would have convinced Android users to download iMessage just like people had to convince iOS users to download WhatsApp. Since half the users in every group had iMessage preinstalled, there's a good chance this could have worked.
Apple's other services are completely different because there's no such thing as peer pressure, like when 5 friends go on a hike and create a group or company X's skiing trip is organized in a group and you just had to install WhatsApp (or iMessage, had it been available).
There aren't any stats to find on iMessage usage, but I think it's safe to say that "give me your number" in the US means you're getting an SMS or an iMessage, not a WhatsApp message. So if both users happen to have iPhones, it'll be iMessage. The number of users has to be large.
Personally I use iMessage a lot. The national average is 50/50 iPhone/Android, but that's not evenly distributed. My entire extended family (~50 people) uses iPhones, and most people I met in college did, so there was pressure on Android users to stop making the bubbles green. Everyone does tend to use FB Messenger for group chats, more because in a 20 person room 1. not everyone is friends with each other 2. there's a high chance of there being at least one Android user.
It is a big if. iMessage is just ok, and it used to be really unreliable. Messages out of order, etc. There are companies whose entire purpose is their messaging app. I can't see Apple doing well in that area.
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Don't think anyone is saying you can't text message android users from the Messages app but you lose all the iMessage features, and encryption. SMS is way less secure, less private and sans encryption.
Either way making a phone/OS purchase decision based on a messaging app is kind of odd to me especially if it's for imessage. Not being multiplatform is a nuisance and there are plenty of great messaging options out there. The real pain is choosing one and having everyone you interact with use that one.
Would love if iMessage went multiplatform because it's probably the one messaging app I think could get most people to start using it and get rid of all these other apps. Though I can't remember how many people can be in a group chat which important for some people, especially some gamers.
Absolutely incorrect. iMessage can be both your phone number and your email address so it can be completely SIM agnostic.
“Let’s stick to messaging apps only”
Let’s not play by some arbitrary rule you’ve created in order to avoid being wrong.
In my opinion and my opinion alone, Apple is a DANGER to the ecosystem and this proves everything !
lol. It’s not arbitrary at all. Your comparison is not helpful in the discussion. For a start we know that due to politics and the size of the Chinese population, any one Chinese app could easily have the most users and not really be meaningful in this conversation.
Secondly we know that iMessage, messenger and WhatsApp offer a fraction of what wechat does as wechat has morphed into a whole patform of services for Chinese citizens.
So yes you could be “right” (still not sure you are here), but can you be “meaningful”? Those are two very different things. One is pedantic the other is worthwhile.
But the thing is it is not up to Apple, now they have become a monopoly. When you become dominate in a market by uk law, which many other laws are based on and which incorporate a lot of EU laws, you need to take into account your business practices on competition. It is your responsibility to make sure what you do doesn’t stop your competitors.
I never said that this is not the case in the US. But in Europe you don't get an SMS except from your grandma and mTAN operators. When you get someone's number, you look them up and communicate with WhatsApp. It may be hard to understand for you with your uneven distribution, but here all sorts of people buy Android phones. Good/flagship Android phones, not just cheap ones that would only be bought by people of a certain background (and therefore would not interact with you for example). Whether people have iOS or Android is more or less random, with an iOS bias towards higher income, but it's far from clear cut.
The point is: As soon as the distribution becomes more heterogenous, iMessage automatically doesn't cut it anymore and is abandoned. There is no reason why this uneven distribution should not erode more and more at the edges in the US too. There's only one influential character needed per interacting group to bust open the door for another messenger. The lock-in effect of iMessage slows it down, but eventually the very same effect is also its demise.
That's just a matter of focus. Yes, Apple dropped the ball, but that doesn't mean Apple can't do software right when they want. Right? Again, it is a lack of vision and in my view a colossal strategic failure on their part to let this slip. But I agree with you that the implementation is far from outstanding and that it is also too late now. The WhatsApp privacy issue was probably the last chance to gain significant market share.
I used to love iMessage but peer pressure here in Europe has really pushed me away from it. Even my iPhone people, particularly my wife for example, insist on using WhatsApp because it's their default and they don't really feel like moving back and forth between messengers.
I think your last point is easily missed in areas where iMessage is established and the alternative seems to be SMS: iMessage does not really bring anything particularly special to the table for most people, especially if you're using your iPhone with a PC. For the average user, iMessage does nothing that WhatsApp doesn't do as well, potentially even better.
I think Apple has more or less lost the messenger game in Europe and I don't think many iPhone users would actually be a force multiplier to push it if it be some cross-platform. They'd just continue to use WhatsApp.
imo Signal is better than "Whatsapp" which is a play on "Whats up". Sounds like it was named by a child. I don't like Signal name either but its better.
I have not tested that, but even if iMessage video call is superior you can only use it with other Apple users. iMessage is only used in the USA. Outside of that its a Whatsapp world between all android and ios devices.
For me iMessage is just an added reason to stick with iPhone certainly not the reason. just With facetime and air drop is just an added reason
They aren’t factors for me. I rarely use FaceTime and well as I’ve said elsewhere most of my contacts use what’sapp. It’s the ecosystem that keeps my on the iPhone.