[ericabiz]

I wasn’t looking at this from a technical perspective, more of a business/finance/operations perspective.

This is Apple we are talking about. They wouldn’t make this play without some form of vendor lock-in. They will probably choose to lock in based on hardware (“must have iPhone 14 for this capability!”) — but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them lock in on the software side as well.

If I were Tim Cook, I might play both sides. “Bandwidth is limited, so for now, this will only work with iMessage.” This gives them room to open it up later for more good PR, and allows them to test the reaction of having it only work with their proprietary software.

I have no insider knowledge here. I follow this space closely due to co-owning an independent repair business that primarily works on Apple products.

[vineyardmike]

I doubt it.

The value-add now is that you keep and iPhone so you have iMessage. You stay blue bubble etc.

The value add of satellite is that you have service on a mountain (or a plane?). The value is that most androids won’t have that (a musk-maybe-one-day project aside).

It’s way more likely they’ll make it exclusively available on high end phones. Thats a way more obvious play for apple.

[dmix]

iMessage seems like an odd choice to single out for lock in though. This is a whole network, I doubt it will be integrated directly with services. There’s not any precedent for anyone else doing that (besides maybe Facebook with their phones). Despite the fears about net neutrality.

[fragmede]

Apple's a corporation like any other, and they're not above a little bit of vendor lock-in. Plus, given the low data rates this will support, this can only support a limited subset of Internet access.

[CharlesW]

> I wasn’t looking at this from a technical perspective, more of a business/finance/operations perspective.

I understand, but an iMessages¹-only Messages² is a non-starter at Apple because it causes complexity and customer confusion, two things that Apple is stellar³ at minimizing.

¹protocol ²app ³overall, always exceptions

[ericabiz]

Oh, right. I agree with you on that front. I see it working this way:

If you are standing on top of a mountain, right now you can’t send anything.

With Apple’s upcoming announcement, you’ll be able to send an iMessage.

If you try to send a SMS, it just won’t go through—-same as it would today.

I hope Apple allows it for all messages, personally. But I could definitely see them restricting it, especially at the beginning.

[CharlesW]

> If you try to send a SMS, it just won’t go through—-same as it would today.

I may be confused about the scenario then, because this does work for me. Specifically, when I turn off my cellular radio (I'm a T-Mobile customer) I can still send and receive messages to people not using iDevices.

[vineyardmike]

Most carriers have wifi-calling (and wifi SMS) that you can enable.

[easton]

Even without Wi-Fi? Because that’s the scenario they’re talking about, where nothing sends because you have no signal whatsoever.

[CharlesW]

> Because that’s the scenario they’re talking about, where nothing sends because you have no signal whatsoever.

Right, but the point of an iPhone that can talk to satellites that I'll generally always have at least a low-bitrate IP connection? Because with that, I can text iDevice and Android users alike.

[rblatz]

Weird, I’m on Verizon and if cellular is off all sms is broken but iMessage still works if I’m on WiFi.

[CapmCrackaWaka]

I find this completely false, messaging anyone on a non-iPhone (from my iPhone) is a complete disaster. Pictures / texts randomly fail to send, videos turn to 12 pixel noise, it’s so bad that an entire generation of people have friend groups that apple / android only because communication between the two phones is so bad.

[CharlesW]

> I find this completely false, messaging anyone on a non-iPhone (from my iPhone) is a complete disaster.

You should complain to your carrier. I'm on at least 5 different active text chains at any given time (family, friend groups, school parents) with a mix of devices, and it all works fine.

> …videos turn to 12 pixel noise…

That's an MMS limitation. If you regularly send videos, you'll want to use WhatsApp or some other non-standards-based messaging app.

[roywiggins]

iPhones are stuck with MMS limitations because Apple won't support RCS.

[SllX]

Hopefully they never will. Nothing I’ve read about RCS in the last two months has convinced me it is anything other than a security and spam hole waiting to happen. If there’s to be an inter-operable standard between Apple and Android, I think it has to be Apple and Google-driven rather than something that makes the carriers happy. Anything at all to reduce their role to dumb IP-carrying pipes is aces in my books.