(1/3) "Playing Catch-Up"

Here's a sampling of coverage post-WWDC on the subject of "catch-up" (links provided):

"Now, the company is going after its competitors by brazenly imitating their successes." (CNN - later in the article, the subtitle: "Messages, but like What'sApp [sic], Snapchat, Facebook Messenger")

* * * * * * * * * *

"Apple's iOS 10 plays catch up to Google" (CNet, which mentions Messages)

* * * * * * * * * *

"in some critical respects, it is now playing catch-up..."

"...Similarly, Apple’s integration of other services into iMessage mirrors what Facebook has done with Messenger and what Tencent, a major Apple rival in China, has done with WeChat messaging."

(New York Times)

* * * * * * * * * *

At this point, I'm going to "brazenly imitate" a FIFA football/soccer ref, and show certain media outlets the yellow card:

(Link to John Candy's Flickr photo, credited in the above caption; Link to Creative Commons license for that photo.)

As it turns out, the New York Times is most correct...but, as with CNet's and CNN's authors, it appears to have compared Apple (an actual OS provider and smartphone vendor) with oranges.

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(2/3) So Who Is Apple "Catching Up" To, Exactly? Not a Major Smartphone/OS Provider, It Would Seem.

To be fair, it's not that Apple isn't playing catch-up in some ways. Stickers aren't (that) new. Sending money in a messaging context isn't (that) new. We all know this. Apple embraces being "best" over "first".

The target of Apple's "catch-up" or "copying" (if one were to insist on such a characterization) would probably be (much) more accurately described as third-party messaging platforms, however.

Such as, in no super-particular order:

• WeChat

• WhatsApp

• Facebook Messenger

• Snapchat

• LINE

ALL of which are available on iOS, by the way.

With the possible exception of WeChat, none of these major messenging platforms - as far as I'm aware anyway - are imminently or significantly altering their cross-platform strategy. Yet, at least.

Before circling back to WeChat at the end of this section...have I missed anything? (I'm just a home gamer, so it's very possible. Tweet me @AAPLTree if I have!) Well, I've tried to make a semblance of an attempt to research an alternate angle: A smartphone OEM trying this "make its own default messaging app more like a platform" thing.

Since such OEMs, running heavily-modified Android, do exist.

In search of such OEMs, we start from IDC's recent top worldwide smartphone OEMs list, updated April 2016:

So to do a quick "due diligence"-style search for incipient integrated hardware + messaging platform threats (we can count out Samsung, since it just uses the TouchWiz layer on top of Android like always)...

we have Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi. As for "Others"...sorry, couldn't get anything solid on "Other OS". Heh.

• Huawei (EMUI)? The highest-volume of the non-Samsung Android OEMs? Nope, doesn't look like it. (Very funny, I didn't make any veiled comment about iPhone-esque look-and-feel just then...or did I?)

• Oppo (ColorOS)? Looking past any you-know-which-smartphone resemblances...there's not much on its website about messaging. And since Oppo is claiming a relatively modest number of users (30 million, it's unclear whether this is an aggregate or ColorOS 2.1-specific number), it's not necessarily a surprise that Oppo isn't concentrating its efforts on platform-izing messaging.

• Vivo (Funtouch OS)? Doesn't look like any particularly noteworthy messasing initiatives for them (Examples: Here and here, I ran the second link through Google Translate.) If anything, their Funtouch OS 2.1 sounds rather TouchWiz-like - a layer, based in this case on Android 5.0/"Android L". Though if you look at the "green" section of that second Vivo link a little ways down the page, you might be forgiven if you're reminded of a different smartphone OS altogether.

• Xiaomi (MIUI)? Well, the official forum thread introducing MIUI 8 doesn't seem to say any much of anything about a proprietary messaging app. Nothing about on the topic of messages in MIUI 7 either - apparently the tentpole features were as follows:

Tencent OS? I'm mentioning this out of an abundance of caution because Tencent's a well-established, going-on-20-year-old Shenzhen company, with revenues of around $15B or so as of 2015 per Wikipedia. Which shipped its own Android-based OS around January of last year, with Tencent OS 2.0 promised sometime around now. The major difference between Tencent's OS and other Internet company "crossover" efforts such as Alibaba's Yun OS, of course, is that Tencent develops WeChat.

However, in an era where mobile milestones and trajectories - of all kinds - easily find coverage, and mobile-space players are all too happy to tout their successes/upcoming initiatives, there's very little I've been able to find about (a) the fortunes of Tencent OS, (b) any WeChat-focused OS strategy, or (c) any Tencent hardware partners...aside from an OEM partner named InFocus, which can safely be said to be part of the "Other" category of smartphone vendors at present.

So what does all of this fruitless searching (no pun intended) leave us? Seems that the only "direct" messaging app competitor that Apple could more-or-less-fairly be said to be "catching up to", even though it really isn't close to a smartphone OEM, is Google itself.

And whether we're talking the yet-unreleased Allo or the currently-shipping, soon-to-be-replaced (?) Messenger, the functionality Apple's promising in Messages for iOS 10 (aside from stickers) is nowhere to be found in either Google app.

All told, it's a rather different, hopefully clearer picture than what some members of the press are presenting, isn't it? "Apple's looking to add functionality that more than one third-party cross-platform messenger already has" would be much more appropriate a take than those cited at the top of this post. (Of course, it doesn't have that same clickbait ring to it.)

Focusing on the competition that matters, though? Until Tencent OS 2.0 starts gaining some real traction, Apple as a smartphone OEM is "in the same position" as all of the other OEMs (even if you counted Google itself as an OEM) as of iOS 9...

...with Apple about to advance its own messaging platform substantially this fall.

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(3/3) "App Integration. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think it Means."

Now, it's true that Apple's highlighting iMessage in its iOS 10 advertising. In some ways, it feels like it's getting more hype than the revamped Siri. But before taking a slightly closer look at iMessage, it might be instructive to look at Apple's public-facing Developer website, previewing iOS 10. Tell me if you notice any themes from this pastiche of screen clips from the site:

That's right, "+ Apps". Appearing five times in one webpage.

If you tune out the "catch-up" noise from last week, you might recall the origins of Apple's systemwide iOS + third-party app integration efforts in iOS 10 from two years back.

That would be the iOS 8 announcement at WWDC 2014, when Apple announced Extensibility.

Examples of iOS 8 Extensibility that you might know of or use today: Bing Translation in the share sheet of Safari. Using third-party photo editors via the Edit button in Photos. Using custom keyboards like Swype.

WeChat, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and so on can legitimately be considered platforms, but their "service connections" (ride-hailing, money-sending, etc.) are nothing like what Apple's unveiling in iOS 10. Instead of working within the confines of a (robust, and impressively connected) third-party app container, Apple is building programming pathways accessible by third-party developers across iOS. It's quite a different concept from a full-featured app, and there's all kinds of architecting and security considerations when adding paths to and around the "walled garden".

In the case of the Messages app (publicly-viewable site is here), developers will be able to plug in via (a) extending their existing iOS app or (b) actually creating an discrete app (downloaded from an actual Messages App Store!) to run within Messages itself. The how of the process, beyond sticker packs anyway, is beyond my ability to explain, not being a programmer.

What Messages in iOS 10 can do (without leaving the app), though, has already been explained. As Apple itself puts it:

"- share content

- edit photos

- play games

- send payments [see: Square Cash]

- collaborate with friends within a custom interface that you design"

Seems like a pretty decent boost in functionality from iOS 9. Now, is this as "full-featured" as WeChat? C'mon. It's Apple. Of course not.

On the other hand, WeChat (which Apple is proudly supporting in iOS 10) boasts over "10 million official accounts" that can serve as broadcasters, "bots" or service providers - that's a rather dizzying amount of choice (before considering regional relevance and all that), and it's not the kind of choice Apple users demand to have built into their device's OS.

How many iOS users out there can actually say they've tried 1,000 apps? How about 10,000? Do you, dear reader, "even" have 500 service providers in your Contacts? Be honest.

Also, I'd wager that certain features that distinguish themselves with flourish and smoothness - particularly games - aren't something WeChat's inherently-less-integrated frameworks can handle quite as well (with the possible exception of the mysterious Android-based Tencent OS 2.0).

In any case, feature lists have never been Apple's calling card. Ease of use has always guided Apple - even though some first efforts, such as Watch, needed a third OS iteration to get essentials such as app responsiveness in order.

Beyond the 3x-size emoji and sure-to-get-annoyingly-overused effects and stickers, Apple's preparing a giant year-on-year leap in Messages (plus Siri, Phone and Maps) functionality, thanks in large part to classes of services opened up to developers across much of iOS.

And until the financials prove otherwise --

(sorry, $182B + $233B + maybe $210B revenue years don't set off any panic buttons when you consider where Apple was just a few years prior)

making iOS a richer, more fluid experience with the aid of an army of third-party developers is all that iPhone and iPad owners, in their heart of hearts, really want outside of a better iPhone and iPad.

Those developers, fortified by around $50B in app payments since the App Store's inception, look primed to deliver.