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Comment by jackvalentine | Hacker News Reader

That isn't the genius of iMessage. The genius is that it's built in, activated by default and seamless with SMS. If my recipient has iMessage, it sends over iMessage. If my recipient does not it sends over SMS.

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The carriers will love this

The rumor is that the carriers didn't hear about iMessage until Jobs announced it at WWDC.

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/06/06/imessage

Don't worry, I'm sure AT&T will filter all your iPhone traffic and count 1 iMessage as 1 SMS message regardless so there's no "confusion" for the end user trying to figure out why their SMS usage has gone down by 80%.

AT&T just introduced free mobile to mobile calling to anyone on any network a few months ago, with the catch being you must subscribe to an unlimited SMS plan to be eligible.

They are going to find ways to get people to pay for an SMS bucket whether they need it or not.

That's precisely what I've been thinking since I heard that. First FaceTime, now iMessage. Apple is sure not making friends with carriers with this...

Apple have never shown any interest in being friends with the carriers. Since day one of their foray into the mobile phone business, they've been barely tolerating their partner carriers - like a horrible roommate, you cannot kick out because you need their share of the rent. It's just now Apple feel strong and established enough to completely shun them.

Or to restate it: Apple is willing to piss off the carriers - this is a feature, not a bug.

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