iMessage A Shock for Carriers?

Apple managed to excite a lot of folks by introducing a ton of features in iOS 5. While we could see many of those features coming from a mile, many folks were pleasantly surprised with iMessage. Unfortunately, the news is not that great for carriers, considering that they have made a fortune out of charging for messaging. According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Apple’s partners did not exactly know it was coming.

At this point, it is not clear how carriers will fight against iMessaging. It does seem to be adding more pressure to the already overburdened RIM:

BBM has probably been the largest application driver of Blackberry success (don’t forget, RIM is still taking share in almost every country in the world outside the U.S.)… Apple has knocked down all of RIM’s advantages with iMessage, but has the ability to work on the other advantages once Apple’s network/data centers are fully operational,

explains Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt. RIM could go for broke and open up BBM to other platforms. There is no question the company has not been the leader it used to be. The company’s tablet is not something to write home about. Apple’s App store has been tough to compete with too. Unfortunately, carriers are not going to be open to losing revenue due to Apple’s new messaging feature. They will always find a way to make up for lost revenue.

Apple could always try to become a virtual carrier itself to experiment even more with the features it offers on iPhone. Future government regulations may give Apple more freedom. At this point, we do expect carriers to find a way to keep their revenues where they are regardless. Nice try Apple!