[dharma1]

It's certainly true iMessage isn't monetised today, but it doesn't mean it couldn't be in the future. If China is anything to go by, people do everything on their IM app.

Lock in - how many people are locked into Apple because of iMessage? I think it's just an ancillary service to most people, with WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, or WeChat in China being their main IM app. The longer this is the case, the less relevant iMessage becomes.

[kkarakk]

Have you forgotten about apple credit card/apple pay? apple has already gotten into payments but they own the whole hardware platform, they don't need to shoehorn a tab into iMessage like WeChat has to

[dharma1]

All I'm saying is iMessage could be a lot bigger than it is, if it was a universal app. And right now it's becoming irrelevant compared to WhatsApp etc.

I see a lot of upside and not a lot of downside for Apple here