“A well-informed little birdie tells me that Apple’s phone carrier partners around the world found out about iMessages [sic] when we did: during today’s keynote,” John Gruber reports for Daring Fireball.
“iOS 5, which is due out this fall, features a new messaging service, allowing iPad and iPod touch users to ‘join the conversation,'” Josh Ong reports for AppleInsider. “iMessage allows unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G from one mobile iOS device to another. Built right into the Messages app, users can send text, photos, videos, locations and contacts.”
Ong reports, “The news of Apple’s iMessage may have been quite the shock for wireless providers, which bring in substantial revenue from SMS plans. Gruber himself noted that he plans to cancel his SMS plan as soon as iMessage is available. The feature will also compete against a number of iOS apps that offer SMS-like functionality.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re with Gruber on this: Our SMS plans will be cancelled the moment iMessage ships.
[Thanks to Gomer Pyle for the headline.]
Related articles:
RIM half-CEO’s biggest fear comes to fruition: Apple unveils iMessage app and service – June 6, 2011
New iOS 5 includes over 200 new features, including Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, Twitter integration – June 6, 2011
Take that! Perfect reason to dump messaging extortion plans..
I would cancel mine if only everyone that I texted used an iOS device, which is sadly not the case…yet.
Seriously, as much as I think that’s a great idea, maybe 20% of my friends and clients use iOS.
That said, will message center be built into Lion? Because I sure would love to send texts to my mother’s iMac.
Time to get new friends and clients.
Yeah I’ve have about 10-20% of my friends who don’t use iOS, I say fuck em. You want to use some antiquated messaging system then you can just e-mail me instead.
Use a thesaurus. “f*** em” belongs in a bar with
your buds.
Agreed! Antiquated and expensive.
Incremental step, I`m willing to bet there will be a Lion update to add imessage capability.
Andy, Apple wins by going for the future, not the present. Let’s see…teenagers and young adults text constantly. Now they can have eternally free texting and even send pictures and video. Hummmm. I’d say there will be a change because the texting world is no country for old men (except my mom and pop who also text constantly and are tired of paying for it). And when the kids grow up and get their own devices, if IOS, they will also have eternally free texting. I think I get what Apple is about here. Good stuff for free. That sounds like winning to me.
Like Andy, not everyone I text to has an iOS device. So I don’t see dropping SMS completely, but I do see reducing it *drastically*. At some point, hopefully in the not-so-distant future, iMessage will be ubiquitous enough to drop SMS altogether.
From what I understand, iMessage will only allow free messages to another iOS device. Most of my friends and family do not have iOS devices and therefore dropping the SMS plan from my phone won’t be an option. I don’t text a lot (currently have the $5 / 200 messages plan) but I’m not about to start paying 10¢ per message when some texts me or I need to text them when they don’t have an iOS device.
What happens when they combine iMessage with Facetime?
you get Mobile iChat.
Ha. Don’t you think they’ll change plans to force you to have text. Anyway I message seems like it’s a ecosystem with iOS devices. You’re still gonna need regular text message to get a message from android users and regular phone users that’s why it’s built into the messages app. But it will certainly screw the phone carriers out a bit of text profits. Can you say data will get more expensive. So canceling your traditional text plan may not be such a good idea quite yet. It was a but exciting at first.
Currently using iOS 5 beta on my iPad and it’s glorious!
Why would we want to talk to android or regular phone users? Pft.
🙂
1
I agree, but it’s like having to talk to that cousin you don’t like, sometimes you just have to.
I do have family and friends with dumb phones, so I don’t see how dropping SMS is going to work. My understanding is that iMessage only works between iOS devices, or am I missing something here?
Damn you autocorrect!!
With articles like this and comments of people planning to cancel, my guess is that by the time iOS 5 ships, the carriers will have bullied Apple into not releasing the service as is.. OR: finding a way to make an SMS plan mandatory…
No way, the carriers are going to allow everyone to cancel there SMS plan.
“the carriers will have bullied Apple into”
funny
Yeah, funny. Now try reading the whole the sentence in context..
I said “bullied”…. “OR”.. the point being there is no way that the carriers are going to sit idly by and allow everyone to cancel their SMS plans.. It’s just too big of a money maker.
Dude. You must be a new person in the apple community, nobody is going to bully Apple n Steve. Wait n see.
Reading comprehension much? try reading the whole paragraph, it might make more sense..
And for the record.. The telco companies have done plenty to piss of Steve.. Facetime, tethering and MMS just to name a few.
All network capacity issues. Bad argument.
Did read the whole sentence. That you think Apple would be bullied by anyone is, indeed, funny.
Funny, that you’ve forgotten recent history..
MMS rollout a year late, tethering rollout, several years late..
Not to mention the Telco co’s are still denying Facetime on 3G.
Yes, Steve is a mighty influential man, BUT he doesn’t always get his way.
Trust me, I’d be more than happy to ditch my $19.95 messaging plan, but i can assure you AT&T will not allow it to happen..
COMPLETELY different scenarios. Apple capitulated to the carriers (in this country only) because of their pathetic networks and the inability for them to handle the increased traffic.
Funny, you’ve forgotten somewhat less recent history, such as Veizon being told to pound sand over their demands for the first iPhone.
Of course they are different scenarios, I never said otherwise..
And no I’m not forgetting about Verizon.. I didn’t say Apple never wins.. They often times do. BUT NOT ALWAYS.
$1.29 iTunes songs.. Yep, Apple was bullied by the labels on that one.
$20 for a text plan!? I hope that’s unlimited in/out and international, too! Is that standalone or bundled with other features like call display, visual voicemail, etc?
In addition to unlimited data, AT&T’s text plan is $10 for 1000 messages or $20 for unlimited (international not included.)
Oh a few more..
Variable pricing on iTunes songs.
Variable pricing on TV shows..
So I reiterate, Apple has been bullied by it’s partners before. Steve doesn’t ALWAYS get his way.
Keep trying dude. You’re not gonna win this one.
I already did..
Apple has been bullied by it’s partners. I’ve provided examples. Do with it what you will..
That was never my point anyway, you seem so hell bent on proving that I’m wrong about Apple never being bullied (even thought you are wrong) that you’ve completely ignored my point.. I didn’t say they would be bullied, I said one of two things would happen.. the telco companies would either bully them OR make a messaging plan mandatory.
The point which should be discussed is:
The telco companies aren’t going to allow such a lucrative revenue stream to disappear. that’s it.
Nope, still not a compelling argument in light of the technical limitations behind limiting those services.
Try again.
$1.29. Proof that Apple has been bullied a partner. You lost the argument.
Admit defeat, move on.
Have a nice day. 🙂
You’re not very familiar with Apple influence on not just carriers, but everyone that does business with them!
You mean like how the carriers don’t allow Facetime over 3G?
And you can’t spell their.
sure i can: they’re!
but seriously dude, I’m typing fast, it was a typo. Get over it.
And you don’t know the difference between spelling & grammar.
You Americans are so quaint with your separate SMS plans…
We Americans are so screwed by our telcos, having to pay to send and RECEIVE calls and messages.
you have to pay to receive calls and messages? ouch
Yes, but we’re not a bunch of socialists, so we’re happier. (I got that right, didn’t I?) Who cares how slow or expensive our internet access is. Who cares how many duplicative yet incompatible cellular phone systems we have. It’s the free market, so it must be good.
No this doesn’t replace carrier-based messaging. It only adds messaging to devices currently without it natively: iPad an iPod touch. AppStore apps that offer texting are even safe since they allow texting beyond iOS.
This is mostly a threat to Blackberry, taking away RIM’s last bragging point feature.
SMSs without plans are just going to get (much) more expensive.
But carriers will have more difficulty selling SMS-plans, for sure.
This being a shock for carriers is not entirely true across the board; European carriers already find sms revenues in decline due to apps like Whatsapp and LiveProfile (and Ping with BlackBerry). iMessage will only accelerate this trend.
This development resulted already in discussions (also on European Commission level) about net neutrality vs using DPI (Deep packet inspection) of mobile data network traffic in order to block such services on standard data plans and require customers to buy additional service plans, including VoIP services like Skype. Vodafone is such a carrier already using DPI and requiring additional service plans.
However, this type of application will have indeed a (already proven) major impact on sms usage.
Do you have a link for your claim that European SMS revenues are declining ?
Most Europeans get bundled plans where a large number ( such as 500 ) or even an unlimited number of texts are provided as part of the bundle.
As one who lives in Europe, the impression that I get is of people using text more and more.
KPN Netherlands presented this during their investor day in London, 10th of May 2011
http://www.kpn.com/web/file?uuid=023c9252-2fa9-4909-9b9c-c44f4e463c5e&owner=a221963e-f12b-412c-94c1-b910bda2471f
As a Brit the thought of paying to receive SMS is amusing, I get unlimited texts as part of my normal contract. I believe SMS use is going up here but I would imagine revenues for texts are going down as plans are offering higher numbers of included texts. Even my old pre-paid phone got 1000 free texts for every £10 I topped up. (Do you have pre-pay phones in the US?, I have no idea 🙂 )
yer gareth me too with the unlimited texts – everyone was annoyed here when o2 just had iPhone exclusively because they only gave 500 free texts but once we got more carriers they went unlimited too for the most part barring the cheapest plans along with everyone else.
I cant see how it will work for Europeans – i mean take BBM – it has a following normally teenage kids but not everyone will have an iPhone and rightly or wrongly (and i mean wrongly) some people will prefer android, symbian, blackberry maybe even web os and i cant see the mentality here of having two separate messaging functions –
one that only lets me send messages to people that have the same application (and currently just an iOS device) iMessager – how will it even work are we all going to get the equivalent of a BB PIN (which makes me want to slap whoever’s talking when they announce ‘my bb pin is’)
or one that works with any other phone that you don’t need to know what device they have before sending and its free already!
Even picture messages/mms are free in my current plan.
iMessage or whatever it is was not a turning point of WWDC – by all means apple set up worldwide wifi access and allow me to use facetime, VOIP, iMessager and more data then i can shake a stick at for free or a norminal charge making my phone network obsolete and turning iPod Touch into iPod Touch iPhone and its exciting. As it stands its a bit of a rip off of BBM and that isnt that successful anyhow.
During the First World War, biplanes and triplanes would futz around trying to shoot each other down first with pilots carrying pistols with them into the cockpit and then with turret mounted guns that a co-pilot had to stand up to shoot where the arc of the bullet would give it a trajectory that missed the propellors.
When the French pilot Roland Garros (of the French Open Tennis fame) flew the first interrupter machine gun that fired through the propellors of his Morane-Saulnier it took the German aviators by surprise and he quickly shot down three planes in succession in a dogfight as they were expecting him to train his guns on them either by firing sideways or above his head. Aiming through the gunsights of the plane that was level with the cockpit also gave a higher degree of accuracy.
What Apple is doing is the equivalent of lining up its targets and shooting them like sitting ducks. The first to go flaming down will be RIM as iMessage just rendered BBM into the pages of the history books.
In regards to Roland Garros’ fame, your putting Decartes before the horse.
BTW, Garros did not invent or otherwise invent the interrupter gear; Anton Fokker did. Garros developed a way of protecting the propellor when it was hit by bullets. It worked, but not well.
I didn’t say Roland Garros was the inventor of the interrupter gear that allowed an airframe mounted machine gun to be fired through a forward propellor, only that he was one of the first pilots to fly a plane that was so equipped.
I agree that the early French efforts were rudimentary and it worked more through a process of installing metal deflector plates on to the propellors which compromised their efficiency as air screws but that Fokker subsequently developed a true synchronised machine gun by attaching an impeller wheel on to the propellor driveshaft by deriving ideas first developed by the French and copied from captured airplanes that crash-landed on German held territory.
Dumping the the sms for the iMessage is stupid… Only those with Lion and iPhone w/iOS 5 will be able to send receive the messages. Or am I wrong here?
You can use apps like yahoo to send SMS to your more unfortunate friends who still use lesser devices. I plan to cancel my texting plan as soon as this comes out. All but a few of my friends have iPhone. For the rest it’ll be yahoo SMS.
Unlimted messaging between iOS devices has been around from countless apps, used it for years…
So what is the big here again…?
whats new is that everyone with an iOS device is will automatically be set up to use it. I’ve tried using the free programs, but getting all my iOS using friends to use it too, and getting it all set up, is too much of a pain.
Really, please understand this: a function may be available, but until its easy to use, it’s NOTHING to most people.
And Apple’s made it easy to use. That’s the big deal.
I guess this explains all the BBM commercials in the past few months.
Take the profit out of the equation, and guess what, the cell networks expansion and development will just stall. In terms of outrageous profits, the cell companies make money, but not goobs of it (ala Apple) and reinvest a substantial amount of the intake into better and faster networks.
Change that model, and I think we are all in for a rude awakening.
The big cell companies are owned by companies that are also content and internet providers. Apple’s 2010 profit was $14B, AT&T was actually higher, at almost $20B. Verizon made $10B. Even T-mobile’s US division, which of course only provides cell service, made $1.4B.
They have PLENTY to expand and develop their network. If they chose to.
i never had a SMS plan. GV text works great. Textfree is good too.
I canceled my text plan the minute the first text app came out in the app store. If the telecom companies were smart, a big if, they would make their texting plan free with advertisements, texting is already using the data plan their customers pay for anyway.
I have unlimited texting on 5 iPhones for $30. Sure I’d like to save that but messages won’t get me to give it up and here’s why. AT&T tied free mobile to any mobile into the text offering. With A-list now saved only for landlines and and all mobile calls free I’m now saving $45 on minutes. Just 700 per month with 5 phones is enought because the other 8000 minutes per month are free. My effective cost per iPhone is now only about 55 tax with unlimited data, texting and seemingly endless minutes.
GOOD!!
effyou AT&T. I was thinking about going back to them for a new iPhone until I saw the highway robbery texting plans (either no plan or a $20 unlimited plan).
It will be fun to watch the telcos wither away over the next few years.
MDN’s gonna cancel? Not too surprising. As their app CLEARLY indicates, these guys aren’t the sharpest tools in the box. They basically released the exact same POS as they pulled months back. These guys are either incompetent or, worse, don’t give a frak about their users.
Most of the people I text don’t have iOS, maybe just 3 people, so it doesn’t make a difference to me. I’d rather use my unlimited SMS than my 200MB data.
and i thought my 750mb was pretty poor!
i need to switch to that unlimited plan – apparently its a dam good deal
I for one never paid the extortion price for SMS. Texting should be free since it still only data. The U.S. is the only country that pays so much for texting. Everywhere else it’s FREE!!!
I can’t see canceling my SMS as iMessage is only one iOS device to another. What if you have stupid friends using something else?
Hmmm, guess it’s time to 😉 weed the garden 😉