Apple surprised iPhone carriers with iMessage

June 7, 2011 By Andrew Couts

Apple's new iOS-to-iOS messaging service iMessage may have come as a surprise to wireless carriers of the iPhone, reports indicate.

During yesterday’s keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple made a wide range of big announcements that have the mobile industry churning. One of the most significant new features to the next-generation iOS 5 mobile software unveiled during WWDC is the addition of iMessage, an iOS-to-iOS-only messaging system that more or less mimics the long-lauded Blackberry Messenger.

Apparently the public wasn’t the only group to hear about iMessage for the first time yesterday. According to Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber, carriers of the iPhone learned of iMessage at exactly the same time as the rest of us.

iMessage allows anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to send text, video and picture messages to each other through Apple’s internal network, over Wi-Fi or 3G. This bypasses the carrier’s texting services, and stands as a major threat to this (highly overpriced) segment of their business. So if, say, most of the people you know own an iPhone, you might be inclined to drop your texting plan altogether, and opt instead for the entirely free (but limiting) iMessage.

Some speculate that iPhone carriers AT&T and Verizon may block iMessage, just as AT&T did with iPhone tethering, which took two years to come to market after Apple’s initial introduction of the feature in 2009. But considering a wide array of third-party IM and SMS apps already exists for the iPhone — as well as the nearly identical BlackBerry Messenger — it seems unlikely that wireless providers feel particularly threatened by these types of services.

One entity that may be pained by the iMessage announcement: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. A primary selling point for BlackBerry has been its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a highly popular feature among BlackBerry enthusiasts. According to market analysts, RIM could take a hit due to the introduction of iMessenger.

“While Apple lacks RIM’s NOC/node infrastructure that allows for BBMing without a data plan with some carriers, iMessage otherwise is a direct competitor,” said Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, who spoke with the International Business Times. “The launch of a low-cost iPhone in the Fall targeted at prepaid and emerging markets will only further undermine RIM.”

Oh, right, the low-cost iPhone coming this Fall for prepaid and emerging markets… Wait, what?!

Showing 10 comments

Jeremiah Kastner at 7:54pm 7th June 2011 When I saw this I was wondering how the carriers were going to handle real time messaging alerts. Thats alot of bandwidth at scale.
Realm Zod at 10:58am 7th June 2011 I applaude any service that marginalizes the carrier's obvious monopoly markups on texting. For a service that uses negligable bandwidth/overhead they are making pure profit off of people that text. Bring on the competition.
Joe Hoyle at 9:18am 7th June 2011 As iMessage (apparently) requires 3G / WiFi, I can't see it eating into text message territory initially. At least in the UK where 3G coverage is pretty bad for anywhere but the larger cities. When deciding to send an iMessage or a text message, you are going to choose the option most likely to reach the recipient - and that is still good ol' regular text messages/SMS.
1. Ian Bell at 9:29am 7th June 2011 Agreed. This is no different than using Skype or IMO messaging in my opinion. The carriers should just cool it with the total domination :)
Geoffrey Shauger at 3:32pm 7th June 2011 enough of the "i" naming convention...for a company whose fanbase prides themselves on being creative Apple has literally milked this naming convention more than Hollywood has ever milked a franchise. iTarded
Dan Herzeleid at 2:52pm 7th June 2011 Who gives a flying F***. crApple sucks.
Chris Johnson at 2:49pm 7th June 2011 The only thing that RIM has going for it is BBM because it's so much better than a SMS/MMS. If Apple rolls this out (even if it's a poor rip off; it sounds like it is) RIM is going to go the way of the Dodo.
Bill Roberson at 2:43pm 7th June 2011 Better late than never, Apple.
Blake Tibbetts at 2:42pm 7th June 2011 iDontcare
eaw01 at 6:57am 7th June 2011 Looking forward to the new iPhone 4S (?) - my iPhone 3G is such a pain.