iMessage is a threat because iPhones are popular; the extent of the threat is directly proportional to iPhone market share. Carriers made significant amounts o

iMessage is a threat because iPhones are popular; the extent of the threat is directly proportional to iPhone market share. Carriers made significant amounts of money because of the iPhone that arguably they would not have found any other way to make. Very few of their personal investments led to this success (except perhaps things like Cingular's agreement to invest in "visual voice mail" at Jobs' behest, before AT&T bought Cingular). From my point of view the complaint from AT&T is a little like an investor trying to socialize his losses while keeping all his capital gains. AT&T enjoyed Apple's success when it benefited them, and now that it's working against them they're worried? Well, tough.