techconc

This is the type of acquisition that Apple really needs to make.  Apple just doesn't get the gaming market or simply has no interest in it.  Small indie games in Apple Arcade are fine, but Apple's platforms need A list games.  Apple has great hardware with the M1 Max but a poor gaming selection.  Ironically, Mac sales are at record levels now, but gaming on the Mac is worse than any time in history.  Sad.  

muthuk_vanalingam said:

Apple already has a solution for their customers. - There is a problem with this statement. Unless Apple says "iPhone users are NOT supposed to have friends/contacts who own Android phones OR not use Messages App to interact with them in a secure manner", this is very much a problem for Apple's customers in the real world. The majority of the posters who blame Google in this thread seem to think that - Apple's iPhone users should NOT be able to use Messages App to interact with Android phone users in a secure manner. I can't understand how that can be considered as a reasonable stance.

No, there isn't a problem with that statement.  If you want a secure conversation, use iMessage. Everyone knows SMS is not secure.  Hence the "green bubble".  That's a reminder that you are using a lesser service.   Also, you should know that the RCS standard does not include encryption.  Google is hacking their implementation of it and adding encryption, but that only works with Google's client application.  It's certainly NOT clear how Apple's implementation would work with Google's and how they'd share keys as necessary, etc.  It's easy to paint Apple as they bad guy when you don't even understand the problem or how it would be solved.

gatorguy said:

A few carriers not yet on board is exactly why Google wants Apple to adopt RCS. As soon as they do all carriers will be pressured to support it. IMO they would have no choice not to. In the meantime, those particular carriers continue tracking and collecting and profiting from your user data gathered from SMS texts. They can't do that with E2EE RCS. 

Agreed.  However, it comes back to incentive.  Apple already has a solution for their customers.  Google has far more to gain by the industry adopting RCS than Apple does.  

Also, part of the problem is that I doubt we'll ever see the end of SMS/MMS anytime soon.  There are too many automated services that depend on this service.  Apple provides the premium services, iMessage, for their customers.  They fall back to the lowest common denominator for everyone else.  Imagine now, trying to figure out whether to fall back to the lowest common denominator (SMS) or something in between like RCS.  Why would Apple want to bother with that?  Unless there is a mandate that says SMS is going away by a certain date, I just don't see what incentive Apple has to migrate to RCS before that time. 

gatorguy said:

When Apple finally gives in and dumps SMS as their backup messaging protocol we will all benefit. 

I agree.  However, I don't think it's so much a matter of "Apple giving in" as much as it is a matter of waiting until RCS has universal support from all carriers.   I don't think Apple wants to have to try to figure out which "fall back" service to use.  SMS/MMS provide the basic necessary functionality.  Yes, it's missing many of the bells and whistles of iMessage and yes, RCS will help close that gap a bit.  Still, RCS is hit or miss in terms of carriers support so it really doesn't make sense for Apple to make that the default backup service just yet.

genovelle said:

Cesar Battistini Maziero said:

Google kept YouTube PIP exclusive to Android to bully iPhone users into switching to Android! 

Kill them, burn then to ground! I want all the users and none of the work.

How about turn by turn in mobile maps which Apple helped them develop but turned competitor and withheld it until 3 months after apple surprised them by moving to their own maps. 

If I remember correctly, Google had their own mapping application and service for Android. Apple had their own "Maps" application but it leveraged Google's data / service.  This app had a listing of driving instructions, but didn't have turn-by-turn real time capability.  It used tile based graphics and not the vector based graphics that Apple wanted.  Google was willing to provide that service to Apple ONLY IF Apple would throw privacy out the window and turn over user data to Google.  Apple took the high ground and refused to do that and created their own service.  Sure, in 2012, early Apple Maps was behind Google.  Of course, it's a 1.0 product.  Now, 10 years later, and I very much prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps.  It didn't happen over night and Apple still has work to do and to roll out the latest mapping to other cities and countries, but we can see where this is going and how Apple is taking the lead... all while protecting our privacy.  Thanks Apple!