Nuked Hiroshi Lockheimer accused Apple of using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products. A Wall Street Journal report revealed how US teens have turned Apple’s iMessage into a social status symbol that locks Android users out.
Lockheimer said Monday that’we’re not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android’. The Google executive said Monday:’ I’re asking Apple for modern messaging (RCS) in iMessage, just as they support the older SMS / MMS standards’.
We’re asking Apple to support the industry standard for modern messaging (RCS) in iMessage, just as they support the older SMS / MMS standards standards.
‘Apple is holding back the industry,’ says Lockheimer, later in the Twitter thread. Lockheimer adds that Apple is not allowing RCS.
Will Apple accept Google’s olive branch to make iMessage more compatible with Android?. Will it continue to use lock-in to sell more iPhones?.
Confidential emails between Apple executives show the company is intentionally withholding iMessage in favor of lock-in. Apple exec Craig Federighi said:’we need to get Android customers using and dependent on Apple products’.
‘moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us,’ he wrote in March 2016. The email was forwarded by Beats Music co-founder Ian Rogers about how he’missed a ton of messages from friends and family’.
Rcs, the next-gen replacement for SMS, has any convincing reason for Apple to sign on. That’s likely why Google is creating a little peer pressure of its own.
The Verge has asked Apple if it intends to support RCS literally years with no comment. We’ve written about the personal plight of dealing with Apple’s inaction.
The WSJ’s CEO Tim Cook is likely looking for a legacy larger than just scaling up the company to become the most valuable in the world with a fat pay package as the reward. Perhaps bringing iMessage to Android or RCS to iMessage is the kind of small concession that Apple might actually make.
