Apple has always been very stringent and particular about its closed ecosystem as they have developed Apple-only services like iMessage and Facetime. In the ongoing battle between the iPhone maker and Epic Games, the latter has questioned Apple’s barrier towards Google’s Android Operating System. As what reports are mentioning, Epic Games has dug deep to get back at Apple and question their authenticity. The company has reportedly cited statements from Apple’s top executives, employees and others, it has dug out emails and depositions from Apple employees which it is apparently using in court. As a part of this legal dispute, Epic Games has accused Apple inc. of consciously lock users into their ecosystem with Apple-only devices and services including iMessage which is a major reason why Apple users do not wish to switch to Android devices.
Apple’s fellow top executive Phil Schiller mentioned in an email to a company employee that shifting iMessage to Android will hurt the company more than helping it. On the other hand, Craig Fredrighi says that removing iMessage as a barrier between iPhones and Android phones would remove the obstacle from iPhone using families to give their children Android phones. Both of these statements have been used by Epic Games in its court filings as a part of the ongoing Apple Vs. Epic legal dispute.
As mentioned in earlier reports, Apple says that workarounds to push iMessage on Android devices have been into question and that the company has given great thought to it. However, the idea never saw the light of day and that it was dumped back in 2013 itself. iMessage was first launched with the iPhone 5 series back in 2011 and since then, it has become the number 1 messaging service for iPhone users across the United States and other parts of the world as well.
Eddie Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, Apple Inc., admits that the iPhone maker could have made a version for iMessage on Android that also worked with iOS as a cross-platform messaging service. However, the idea was dumped because of its reasons and has not been developed. Epic Games uses this above-mentioned statement in its court filings to support its accusation.
Anyhow, it is not just iMessage, Facetime is another such application that locks users in the Apple ecosystem which it has built seamlessly over the years. During WWDC 2010, Steve Jobs quoted that Facetime would soon be an open industry standard service, but evidently, it is not.
Apple is known for its enclosed Ecosystem and that is exactly what makes it special. Remember Blackberry’s exclusive BBM service which was a popular instant messaging service for Blackberry smartphone users. As soon as the company decided to let go of that one thing that people loved about Blackberry- BBM, the service which kept them locked into using a BlackBerry smartphone, everyone switched to Android without a blink of an eye and BlackBerry lost its touch. Apple does not want the same thing to happen with them!