[phil]

That's a really nice mock.

I started prototyping something along these lines a couple months before Messages was announced. The idea was to make a (commercial) next-generation IM client for the Mac with a more modern UI. I stopped working on it when the first Messages beta was released, figuring that it added most of the UI things I wanted, and that if it shipped with OS X for free, few would want an alternative.

Now I wonder if dissatisfaction with Messages is high enough that there's an opportunity again?

If you're interested in this stuff and want to talk about it, drop me an email.