Apple's tight grip on iMessage spurs fresh calls for an antitrust probe • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's tight grip on iMessage spurs fresh calls for an antitrust probe

#21

Post by wpm » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 7:49 AM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #20

wpm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessage is an entirely separate service. It’s inactive until you activate it. It costs nothing to not enable. My dad refused to turn it on until last year but his iCloud account functioned without issue so he wasn’t “punished” or dark patterned into turning it on. Is the Camera app an antitrust issue too? Any bundled application?

Not an iPhone user, but if iMessage is also the sole permitted SMS client for iOS, how would you send or receive SMS messages when iMessage is disabled?

iMessage is a service. Messages is the SMS app, that will send iMessages to people who have it enabled.

Re: Apple's tight grip on iMessage spurs fresh calls for an antitrust probe

#22

Post by seabrookmx » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 6:32 PM UTC

hulitu wrote: post #17

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, Apple holds 87% of the teen phone market and iMessage is bundled with the phone. You don't have to have 100% of a market to be a monopoly and Apple's policy of visually distinguishing users of iMessage from those using other platforms leverages peer pressure to ensure it continues to command the overwhelming majority of the teen market. Not sure how it is defensible to use minors developing social skills a…

> In the US, Apple holds 87% of the teen phone market So people who do not afford to buy a loaf of bread, bought an iPhone. I think the problem lies somewhere else. "Daddy, i want an iPhone. Everyone has one". "Sorry, i don't pay 800 Euros for a toy to make phone calls and watch youtube"

The teen phone market is the market of teens with phones. Those below the poverty line and unable to eat are likely not part of this market (ie: don't give their kids phones).

Re: Apple's tight grip on iMessage spurs fresh calls for an antitrust probe

#23

Post by bloppe » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 4:09 PM UTC

hedora wrote: post #5

throwaway5959 wrote: post #2

Yes, because what the market lacks is competition in the messaging space. There are only what, a dozen other options, at least half of which support E2E encryption, audio/video, etc.

Also, most of the benefit of iMessage is due to it being device locked (as in spammers have to burn through iPhones in order to bug people on it) and iOS integrations like apple pay, being able to send large photo and file attachments, FaceTime, etc. What does it even mean for Android to support iMessage if receiving images and videos means getting a non-url link to an iCloud photo (or synchronously transferring GBs…

How often do you get SMS spam? There would be nothing wrong if Apple added a little "this person bought an iPhone" icon to certain conversations. You could use that to scrutinize unknown numbers if you want. You don't need to have a crippled chat experience just to make that distinction.

Also, you have to synchronously transfer GB when you watch the video anyway. How do you think iPhones play videos?

Re: Apple's tight grip on iMessage spurs fresh calls for an antitrust probe

#24

Post by bloppe » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 4:11 PM UTC

olliej wrote: post #8

hedora wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, most of the benefit of iMessage is due to it being device locked (as in spammers have to burn through iPhones in order to bug people on it) and iOS integrations like apple pay, being able to send large photo and file attachments, FaceTime, etc. What does it even mean for Android to support iMessage if receiving images and videos means getting a non-url link to an iCloud photo (or synchronously transferring GBs…

Also who is paying for all this? iMessage is not a free service

Look at all the other free, premium messaging apps: WhatsApp, messenger, even Snapchat can do video conferencing. It doesn't cost that much to run a chat app. The wealthiest company in the world can afford to open up their API