Dear Apple: Please set iMessage free
I want to direct this towards the folks commenting here who might be in the anti-Apple camp. Yes, a walled garden is no fun for anyone once it reaches a critical mass. We're sort of starting to see this with Twitter, with their recent API adjustments. Decentralized and open platforms are also really tough, just look at OpenID. The adoption is not there.Apple saw that the current SMS implementation was flawed in many ways and sought out to improve/replace it. For example, all of the carriers (at least in the US, with the exception of the underdog Sprint) charge an exorbitant amount of money just to send/receive text messages. I pay $20 per month for that ability. SMS also has a limit of 160 characters. It also only works via cellular, whereas iMessage works via data connection. This is awesome for me, as I live in the boonies where I don't always have a cell connection (but do have excellent wifi). Being able to reply from multiple devices is also nice. Let's not forget all of the little 'nice-to-haves' like knowing when a message has been delivered and/or read, knowing when the other party is replying, etc...Alas, they did this because the carriers wouldn't. Prior to Apple releasing the iPhone, you couldn't buy a phone that didn't have some one-off UI, preloaded with garbage apps, etc... Apple forced the hand of the mobile industry with their iPhone (this is obvious to many, but concrete evidence exists inside of the Samsung vs. Apple court documents recently released)Apple is now doing this again with iMessage. They took something that really needed revolutionizing, and did it.  It began as something great for members of the Apple ecosystem. They used their users and platform to prove it, and it's been successful. I can communicate via my Mac, iPhone, and iPad in a (mostly) unified experience. So, I do agree and hope that this expands to a wider audience. That being said, it will be tough. An open consortium leads to all sorts of issues (ahem, Android) and sometimes having one chef in the kitchen yields the best overall experience for everyone (Apple).