[X-Istence]

iMessage happily works over 3G without issues. I love iMessage. I can contact my brothers and sister in The Netherlands using iMessage and it doesn't cost me anything more than a data plan. I can send pictures without having to worry about international costs for MMS.

iMessage is a lock-in for me mainly because I love the features it provides me and the connectivity to my family. It is simpler than getting everyone set up on WhatsApp or Skype for example (Skype is terrible for battery life on the iPhone as well) and just works.

You can however as you stated turn off iMessage on the iPhone entirely, at which point the Apple iMessage server will simply tell your friends you are not available on iMessage and send it over standard text.

[dfc]

So imessage is blackberry messenger for iphone?

(I'm not a iphone guy, I have never heard of imessage before. This is not trollfood.)

[tvon]

As I understand it, basically. Granted, I've never used BBM before.

If you try to text someone with iMessage, it will send them an iMessage instead of a text (assuming you have iMessaging capabilities). Aside from being free, the only other real difference seems to be typing notifications.

There is also upcoming/beta desktop client integration coming with Mountain Lion, fwiw.

[dpitkin]

Except I don't think BBM ever made text messages look like BBM messages. Does iMessage show you a "read" mark like bbm or what's app?

I would agree that any device only messaging system (BBM/iMessage) are probably things to stay away from if you value an easy future choice without telling everyone to stop using the old method.

[zxoq]

Read marks are an option for the receiver, and is turned off by default.

[rhplus]

Wouldn't Push email provide exactly the same functionality for both parties without any dependency on Apple's hardware or services?

[edash]

The author had already disabled cell service on the iPhone, which is why disabling WiFi should be a sufficient alternative to stop the phone from receiving iMessages.

[X-Istence]

Except that when he turned Wifi back on the problem would still exist. So it is not a fool proof solution to the problem.