Thursday, February 16, 2012

OS X Message: Another nail in the SMS coffin

Two hours after I berate Apple for being unable to do basic maintenance on OS X and their core apps (ex: generations of worthless and unchanging OS-tied iChat), they announce Mountain Lion.

That's pretty good customer response Apple.

There's no mention of iBook for OS X, but a very big part of Mountain Lion is available to download now (for Lion I presume):
Apple - Mac OS X - Download the free Messages Beta.
Download Messages Beta and get a taste of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion. When you install Messages, it replaces iChat...
... Send unlimited iMessages to any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
Launch a FaceTime video call and bring the conversation face-to-face...
Remember telephone companies? The corporations who've been living on the vast profit margins of SMS messaging? Like AT&T, that just raised the cost of its standard data plan by 50%?

This is what they're afraid of. iMessage is why my family no longer pays AT&T $30 a month for text messaging. The pool of people who can use iMessage is growing fast, and now Apple is moving their voice alternative (Skype, etc) a step further.

See also:

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