I still think Apple has a missed opportunity with iMessage - dual platform support 10 years ago would mean no WhatsApp, which is universal is much of the world. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess.
What's next, are we going to call OSX the dominant OS platform lol
First of all, it's simply completely unaffordable in developing countries so you can't realistically consider them part of the market. In rural India, an iPhone 15 pro Max or whatever is more than a year of income for many.
Coming to countries like the us, studies show that among younger folks, apple's market share is close to 90% [1]
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-rules-gen-z-nearly-90-...
The legal jargon surrounding what dominance is remains completely irrelevant, just like the legal system itself -- the punishments are pocket money for these companies, so it's mostly ceremony to keep lawyers employed.
But from a logical standpoint, they most certainly already are in many segments, and are coming to be in other segments.
I'm not sure this is the win you think it is ?
Androids 70% marketshare has been extremely stable over the past decade. That is the dominant platform, no qualifiers.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/why-teens-hate-androi...
We were using whatsapp before iPhone even came to my home country, and living in Ireland now, everyone seems to be using it here as well. In fact, I'll venture as far as saying /not/ having WhatsApp is considered weird and you will no doubt exclude yourself from a lot of spcial circles.
iMessage is an ecosystem perk for buying Apple hardware - it has no intrinsic revenue (and as shown in every one of these discussions, in many parts of the world is largely unused by iPhone buying customers).
Interoperability is a good thing. Apple has committed to supporting RCS and doing what Google never did, and bringing E2EE to the standard rather than bolting their own shit on, and limiting who can use that.
2. Apple has made it clear that they want iMessage to be an exclusive app and it works as intended; people are literally buying iPhones to use it.
A vast majority of WhatsApp users joined long after those two years