And this is clearly shows how Americans percieve the thing. You can't send iMessage to non-iPhone user then. You still can send SMS/MMS to non-iPhone user. B

And this is clearly shows how Americans percieve the thing. You can't send iMessage to non-iPhone user then. You still can send SMS/MMS to non-iPhone user. But because Apple intentionally bundled SMS/MMS messenger app into iMessage you are thinking iMessage == SMS/MMS. To give you an idea why are conflating them - you don't actually need a phone number for iMessage/FaceTime. Because the primary ID for it is your Apple ID, not your phone number.