What's the big deal with iMessage on the iPhone?

I've just been reading an article on Apple Insider about iMessage, a new messaging service that is built into iOS 5. It's called "Apple's free iMessage expected to undermine carriers' high-profit SMS business." It's like Apple just invented instant messaging. Can this really be true? Are there no instant messaging apps for the iPhone?

A quick search at Google turned up plenty of references to instant messaging apps and How to instant message on an iPhone was written in 2007. That's how long instant messaging has been around! A more recent article is Top 5 instant messenger apps for iPhone which was written earlier this year. So what's the big deal with iMessage?

Well, iMessage should be superior to other instant messenger apps because Apple makes the OS and iMessage is integrated more closely with it. It will have access to features and functions that are off limits to other third party apps. So expect a really cool app with some great features when iOS 5 finally becomes available for download.

No matter how good it is though, it is limited to iOS devices and when you have lots of friends with other types of phones you still need a mobile phone contract with a good text message allowance. Perhaps mobile phone contracts are different here in the UK than the US, but for most people here texting isn't really an issue. Contracts typically bundle hundreds or even thousands of texts a month, so it costs nothing extra to send or receive them. It's quick, easy, cheap, and every phone has it. (Even if you're on a pre-pay pay-as-you-go tariff, it's free to receive texts, which I think is different in some other parts of the world.)

iMessage will be useful only if all or most of your friends, relatives and business contacts have iPhones, but this is rarely the case. It's about as much use as FaceTime, which is another Apple app that's limited to iOS devices (and the Mac in this case though). I use Skype because it runs on anything. It does instant messaging too, so I can call iPhones, Android phones, desktop computers, tablets - anyone, anywhere, on any device.

I'll be upgrading to iOS 5 when it becomes available (not long to wait now), but iMessage won't get a lot of use on my iPhone and I don't think my mobile phone service provider will be worried. If I do use it, it just means less bandwidth used on their system and this will benefit them if anything.