[Someone]

I don't see how Apple could have gone for a Messages/FaceTime only solution. Even the most fervent Apple fan will have quite a few friends, relatives, or at least contacts who do not have an iPhone or a Mac.

So, they have to support phone calls and SMS, whether they want to or not.

[stevoyoung]

I think the way they would have gone about with messages/ft alone would have been to continue along their current route. I don't think phone calls and sms messages on your computer was something consumers were banging down the door for. Alternatively, a year from today, I think most people wouldn't be able to "live" with out it.

It's one of those "don't know you love it until you use it" features, like Visual Voicemail. So essentially, I think Apple threw the carriers a bone while making the consumers tied even more to their platform.