We did, but a lot of users (and apparently several carriers) wanted a messaging platform for SMS/MMS that wasn't tied into Google's messaging platform so they m

We did, but a lot of users (and apparently several carriers) wanted a messaging platform for SMS/MMS that wasn't tied into Google's messaging platform so they made this (which is basically just the SMS/MMS part). I can definitely see how multiple apps that are so similar would be annoying or seemingly redundant. Still, the whole point of the Android platform has always seemed (to me) to be flexibility and options even if it's at the expense of simplicity or streamlining. iOS seems to address the market on the other side of that demand and is biased toward simplicity and streamlining at the expense of flexibility. I guess it's one way to differentiate on the software side if nothing else.