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..or it could be an opportunity for them. Apple relies more and more on services for growth. For instance, why not make iMessage into a cross-platform app, as a real privacy-focused competitor to Whatsapp, Telegram etc?

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Because they don't make money directly from iMessage, they make money by selling the hardware, and the fact that iMessage only works on their hardware increases it's value and further locks you into their ecosystem.

It's certainly true iMessage isn't monetised today, but it doesn't mean it couldn't be in the future. If China is anything to go by, people do everything on their IM app.

Lock in - how many people are locked into Apple because of iMessage? I think it's just an ancillary service to most people, with WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, or WeChat in China being their main IM app. The longer this is the case, the less relevant iMessage becomes.

Have you forgotten about apple credit card/apple pay? apple has already gotten into payments but they own the whole hardware platform, they don't need to shoehorn a tab into iMessage like WeChat has to

All I'm saying is iMessage could be a lot bigger than it is, if it was a universal app. And right now it's becoming irrelevant compared to WhatsApp etc.

I see a lot of upside and not a lot of downside for Apple here

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