月份: 2021 年 4 月

Chatting with the AC forums.

Recent reports from the Apple vs. Epic Games trial unearthed communications between Apple executives, confirming that the company had at least considered bringing its popular iMessage service over to Android as far back as 2013. It’s pretty easy to understand why Apple wanted to protect its ecosystem lock-in, but it’s also interesting to speculate what might have been.

Sure, we have no shortage of great messaging apps over here on Android, but being able to securely communicate with our iPhone wielding friends on their preferred chat app would have been nice too.

So what say you, faithful Android community? Would you have rushed to download iMessage for Android to join club blue bubbles? I probably would have.

We want to hear from you — If iMessage was available on Android, would you use it? Why or why not? Let us know!

Join the conversation in the forums!…

Demand for Chromebooks is expected to remain strong in the second quarter.

What you need to know

Sales of tablets and Chromebooks continued to rise in the first quarter of 2021.
Preliminary data from IDC shows a total of 13 million Chromebooks were shipped in Q1 2021, up from 2.8 million during the same period last year.
HP was the biggest Chromebook vendor in the January to March period, with a market share of 33.5%.

Chromebook sales skyrocketed last year as the pandemic made studying and working from home the new normal. According to preliminary data from the IDC’s worldwide quarterly personal computing device tracker, sales of Chromebooks and tablets remained strong in the first quarter of 2021.

While only 2.8 million Chromebooks were shipped in the first quarter of 2020, total shipments reached 13 million units in Q1 this year. HP, which was held the third spot in Q1 2020, was the biggest Chromebook vendor in Q1 2021, with a market share of 33.5% and 633.9% YoY growth. L…

Had iMessage come to Android in 2013, Google would have less competition in the U.S., but the biggest loser would have been Facebook.

In 2013, Apple’s senior VP of software and services Eddy Cue wanted to bring the iMessage service to Android, but the idea was nixed by other Apple executives, including Apple’s SVO of software engineering Craig Federighi. Ever since, there have been a lot of people who wish it could have happened.

Of course, this would have had an impact. Many people think iMessage is the best messaging app available, and with the iPhone holding a large portion of the market in the U.S. and the U.K., sales numbers might look a little different. But neither Google nor Apple is the winner here. Instead, both lost the battle to Facebook because Apple didn’t make iMessage cross-platform.

Apple’s future would have changed

There are people who won’t use any messaging app except iMessage. In fact, those people sometimes refuse to talk to someone who isn’t sending a blu…