[num1]

> And here’s the real death blow: iMessages will be completely free.

Compared to the cost of my data plan (and the data plan that you'll have to buy to use any iOS5 device), SMS is essentially free. Google Voice provides unlimited messaging for free, all you have to do is download an app. Making iMessage free is not a death blow, and presenting it as such does nothing but imply messaging is a commodity. Not even fax machines are a commodity yet, you have plenty of choices as to which service to use and which machine to buy.

> But it’s not just that iMessages kills SMS because it’s free. It kills it because it’s better.

When I read a straightforward sentence that presents an opinion as fact I expect evidence. In this case the evidence we are given is a link to the Apple website [1] and an assurance that iMessage is "streamlined and simplified."

I've only been following HN for a few months now so this is a serious question, has TechCrunch always been so horrible at journalism?

[1] http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#imessage

[trotsky]

TechCrunch does have pretty low journalistic standards, but in this case the piece's author is famous for his constant praise of nearly everything apple. Apparently there is a niche market that is served by a few blog authors of which he is one, where fans of the company congregate and seek out positive reinforcement.

[num1]

This sounds reasonable. I had previously thought that only John Gruber belonged to that group. Is there anybody else you would categorize with him? I'm interested to see how other people write about Apple products.