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What's in a bubble: loyalty or lock-in? That's the question Epic Games is asking in a recent court filing. Epic is arguing that because Apple won't make iMessage available on Android, they are guilty of forcing parents to buy iPhones for their kids instead of Android phones. The filing cites some internal Apple emails where execs discuss why iMessage on Android would be a bad idea.

Duh!

This line of reasoning is absurd. Apple invented iMessage. It's a popular feature of iOS and the Apple ecosystem. It was designed to delight Apple customers to the point where they would remain loyal to the product and the brand. Can you name a feature or benefit of an Apple product that was not designed with that as the primary goal?

Hey, Epic: I hope your lawsuit is based on something more powerful than, "Apple makes great products and they don't share them with others; they make people pay for them."

You can read more about this at the Verge:

Apple says iMessage on Android ‘will hurt us more than help us’
Epic argues it’s part of Apple’s lock-in strategy
By Jon Porter

Apple knows that iMessage’s blue bubbles are a big barrier to people switching to Android, which is why the service has never appeared on Google’s mobile operating system. That’s according to depositions and emails from Apple employees, including some high-ranking executives, revealed in a court filing from Epic Games as part of its legal dispute with the iPhone manufacturer.

Epic argues that Apple consciously tries to lock customers into its ecosystem of devices, and that iMessage is one of the key services helping it to do so. It cites comments made by Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddie Cue, senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, and Apple Fellow Phil Schiller to support its argument.

“The #1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage ... iMessage amounts to serious lock-in,” was how one unnamed former Apple employee put it in an email in 2016, prompting Schiller to respond that, “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us, this email illustrates why.”

Continue reading at The Verge.