3 ms·

The resources are negligible and not worth mentioning. Chat, encrypted or not, is not an expensive service for Apple to run. There are much better business ar

The resources are negligible and not worth mentioning. Chat, encrypted or not, is not an expensive service for Apple to run. There are much better business arguments to make here then "oh no! The 3 trillion dollar company might have slightly more overhead managing text messaging!"

ddol 3y ago
iMessage supports attachments up to 100Mb and groups of 32 participants. It’s certainly more resource intensive than 140 byte SMS.
- rockskon 3y ago
  Sure, but let's not fool ourselves. It isn't exactly a cost center for Apple to run the service nor would it be to scale up usage to include Android users. The cost would be a rounding error to Apple. From a business perspective, I'm much more sympathetic to arguments that iMessage is a perk Apple wants to keep as incentive for more users to switch to Apple's ecosystem and, likely more important, lack of cross-platform interoperability raises the cost for existing Apple users to transition to Android.
  - willseth 3y ago
    Another way to look at it is that there would always be a fixed cost to operating any global messaging network that would probably be at least a million dollars a year. Piggybacking on Apple's already-built network and focusing only on marginal cost sidesteps the reality that standing up a service that big from scratch is very expensive. Even if iMessage were a decentralized network like email that allows federation, Beeper Mini would be on the hook for a much bigger bill.
    - rockskon 3y ago
      .....? Are you claiming Apple would have to pay fixed costs a second time because new users were added to the already existing service? And are you claiming that 1 million dollars is a lot of money to Apple, a company worth over three million million dollars?
Analemma_ 3y ago
The unauthorized access is the problem, not the amount of resources used. If you hack into a system and use it "just a little" you've still committed a crime.
- ItsABytecode 3y ago
  This hacking is more DMCA than CFAA
- rockskon 3y ago
  Okay? Not sure why you're bringing up a what-if that didn't happen. Beeper Mini didn't hack into Apple's servers. I was responding to someone who said the extra overhead for running a chat service that has more people use it would be notable for Apple. A business argument - not a legal one.

ddol 3y ago

iMessage supports attachments up to 100Mb and groups of 32 participants. It’s certainly more resource intensive than 140 byte SMS.

rockskon 3y ago
Sure, but let's not fool ourselves. It isn't exactly a cost center for Apple to run the service nor would it be to scale up usage to include Android users. The cost would be a rounding error to Apple. From a business perspective, I'm much more sympathetic to arguments that iMessage is a perk Apple wants to keep as incentive for more users to switch to Apple's ecosystem and, likely more important, lack of cross-platform interoperability raises the cost for existing Apple users to transition to Android.
- willseth 3y ago
  Another way to look at it is that there would always be a fixed cost to operating any global messaging network that would probably be at least a million dollars a year. Piggybacking on Apple's already-built network and focusing only on marginal cost sidesteps the reality that standing up a service that big from scratch is very expensive. Even if iMessage were a decentralized network like email that allows federation, Beeper Mini would be on the hook for a much bigger bill.
  - rockskon 3y ago
    .....? Are you claiming Apple would have to pay fixed costs a second time because new users were added to the already existing service? And are you claiming that 1 million dollars is a lot of money to Apple, a company worth over three million million dollars?

Analemma_ 3y ago

The unauthorized access is the problem, not the amount of resources used. If you hack into a system and use it "just a little" you've still committed a crime.

ItsABytecode 3y ago
This hacking is more DMCA than CFAA
rockskon 3y ago
Okay? Not sure why you're bringing up a what-if that didn't happen. Beeper Mini didn't hack into Apple's servers. I was responding to someone who said the extra overhead for running a chat service that has more people use it would be notable for Apple. A business argument - not a legal one.