Yesterday Apple announced the launch of the service iMessage which practically allows owners of iDevices to send text or multimedia messages via the Internet to any other iDevice with iOS 5 installed. We now have a service similar to BlackBerry messenger that gives us the opportunity to chat with any other iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch user over the Internet and we can send them movies, pictures, contacts, text messages, anything at no cost. Practically now we no longer have any reason to pay for SMS/MMS since an internet connection solves the communication problem by simply connecting to a Wi-Fi network or by using a 3G connection.
A well-informed little birdie tells me that Apple's phone carrier partners around the world found out about iMessages when we did: during today's keynote.
The interesting part? Mobile operators did not know about this new function of iOS 5 until yesterday and they found out exactly like us from Sott Forstall. Although some say that operators will be affected by this new option because users will choose to cancel their MMS/SMS options because they have iMessage, well I think that the situation will not be like that. Maybe only those who have friends who own only iDevices will decide to do this, but the rest will need SMS/MMS to chat with friends who have other devices. For operators, the impact is minimal, in fact maybe only AT&T or Verizon will be affected, otherwise I don't think it will matter much.
