First, Apple kills the PC, then it attacks a weakened BlackBerry, and finished up sticking it to its carrier partners. Not bad for one day’s work in Silicon Valley.
After pronouncing the start of a “Post-PC Era,” Apple officials announced iMessage, taking aim at its frequent target Research in Motion as well as firing a shot over the bow of carrier partners getting rich on cheap text messaging. iMessage, part of the iOS 5 update expected this fall, allows users to send text, photos, contacts and more for free over iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices.
“Assuming it is widely adopted by iOS users broadly, it will become one more reason for users to defect from Blackberry in 2012,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair said. However, Apple has the huge base of users capable of making iMessage do well against the BlackBerry’s Messenger component, he adds.
While BlackBerry Messenger is used more often to send dry business notes, the service is also popular with teens and college students. “There are regions around the world and college campuses where you see high rates of BlackBerry adoption and BBM is the main reason,” according to the analyst. It’s uncertain whether the similar iMessage service of iOS 5 devices will make young people switch.
Also in danger from the iMessage service unveiled Monday are the many carrier partners who inked deals with Apple. Visions of iPhone and iPad users slurping large amounts of data via texting could be damaged by iMessage. Also in question is how carriers will react to the surprise announcement of iMessage, effectively killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Will carriers stop following Apple like a lost puppy and place more emphasis on Android? Or, could iCloud be a way for carriers to replace the revenue stream? So far, neither RIM nor the carriers are talking. However, we shouldn’t expect that silence to last long.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
34 responses to “Apple’s iMessage Is Going To Try To Kill BlackBerry… And SMS”
Isn’t iMessage IChat for iOS? In other words, another closed messaging service rather than something that enables messaging to anywhere? To that end, I can’t imagine it getting traction in a big way, unless everyone you know has iOS devices.
I think you have a valid point, but at the same time that Apple is taking away a portion of the SMS revenue (remember nobody has 100% contacts with iOS), they are giving away a lot of data to be consumed by the same users. iCloud is essentially “the” feature of iOS 5 and beyond and will need a lot of data (even if it’s only to sync small things like photos and app-states. And carriers like this too as they can expect an upsell of their users data plans.
There’s a lot of countries in Europe who don’t have unlimited plans, and the ones that do have prohibitive prices… so let’s see if this is either good or bad in the long term for Carriers.
Something that enables messaging to anywhere is SMS but it not free…
Why are you assuming that carriers aren’t in the loop with these changes, let alone on-board with them?
I think this will be big, especially those with family plans. BBM was a major driving force for BB adoption and this is a MMS is a feature Google currently does not have. Also there are a lot of people who have dumbphones with unlimited texting who can now get an iPhone with the $15 data plan instead of paying for a messaging plan.
iMessage just another kind like Whatsapp. But iMessage just for iOS device. But Whatsapp is for iOS, Android, Symbian, and Blackberry. I don’t see iMessage is kill SMS and BB. But it will useful for iOS device users using iPad and iPod Touch since Whatsapp don’t have for iPad and iPod Touch.
After all the announcements from WWDC the iMessage service has high appeal to me. So much so I may consider an iPhone afterall. To date all I’ve wanted is voice service from the carriers. With the camera quailty in iPhone 4 I would find it nice to have a camera everywhere I am. Then the iMessage service enables sharing it. This is called progress, not worrying about keeping past providers in the loop. When automobiles became popular buggy whips were scheduled for extinction. So it is with new itegrated services, just announced… they will obsolete less to offer services. I have Mi-fi with the 5 GB cap and the high monthly fees, the Carriers have had their hay day … I don’t stream because of cost and slowness of service … now we can look forward to really great services that are more economically attractive.
I wouldn’t be surprised if others will be thinking the same way. FWIW
I when our whole family went with Verizon (for various reasons) … we now have means to freely contact each other at any time, without a lot of expense. I really have no interest is contacting just anyone … yet I can if I wish … cause I can call any one else, too.
Realize that Apple will be selling a lot of iPhones, and there of plenty all ready out there. How many people settled for other brands because they weren’t avail on Verizon. Sure Apple needed the help of certain carriers. The carriers also benefited… and will continue to do so.
like BBM?? Besides, I believe there is an setting that says that if the person on the other end does not have an iDevice that it will send it through SMS.
I’ve been waiting a long time for something easy to come along and knock the SMS crap out of the way. As a service – I love it, but it’s one that I feel I’m already paying for with my data plan. It’s therefore just another way to nickel & dime a path to several million dollars in extra money from people.
How is iMessage better than the myriad of iPhone messaging apps? I currently switch between Google Voice (for texting), Meebo (for AIM, Google Talk, and Facebook Chat), and Voxer (for iOS group text/audio/photo messaging)
Didn’t the first iPhone try to kill MMS?
SMS and MMS are ubiquitous mobile communication standards. Until someone comes up with something just as ubiquitous and a whole lot better, we’re stuck with them. Good luck… there are many worthy alternatives available now on all the major mobile platforms and yet here we are discussing yet another alternative (limited to iOS no less).
I can see iMessage attracting those stuck with ugly BlackBerries for BBM but SMS killer? *laughing* Sounds exactly like all those iPad Killer stories we’ve been reading… yeah, whatever dude!
That is of course if RIM never manages to bring BBM to iOS and Android… which they are suspected of doing very soon. Why iMessage when you have the installed user base of BBM?
At this point in time, iMessage is yet another chat client in an ocean of capable chat clients. Maybe Apple’s voodoo will help it gain some level of dominance but that’s anything but certain. Who here uses FaceTime?
It just did….. unfortunately, I’m long on RIMM
iMessage is more then just a Whatsapp or Kik, its built natively into SMS, so your non iOS contacts appear in the same menu as iMessage contacts. The only difference is the actual typing/conversation screen. This means the user has to do no work whatsoever and doesnt have to manage conversations in different apps.
Thing is that you need friends/someone to have those apps on their iPhone and sometimes they cost money. Some people have Meebo, some PingChat etc, and either you convince them all to get one messenger app or you jump from one app to another. iMessage will be the integral part of iPhone. Once you get iOS device, you automatically get iMessage. This built-in group messaging feature with multimedia will be a killer.
Thanks Paul! This does put iMessage in a better more compelling context. Still, it may put a sizable dent in SMS traffic but I can’t see it replacing the protocol. There are just too many non-iOS smart devices and feature phones. However, should Apple do with iMessage like it did with webkit, well, that might just change everything rather quickly. Thanks again for the clarification.
Well, iChat has always used the AIM network, so… not a very good analogy.
But yes, It will be obscure compared to cross-platform services like WhatsApp.
iMessage is so tightly integrated that users will use it without even knowing about it. It basically just diverts Texts between iOS devices so that they are sent over a normal data connection. How many people will actually turn off SMS/MMS? Very few I’m sure.