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There’s a new iMessage for Android app — and it actually works
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
There are lots of factors going into the dominance of the iPhone in the US. Platform lock-in, the ecosystem, the lack of an alternative with similar levels of polish for several of the early years, the mystique, the design, the build quality, Android's formerly fractured lineup, the rise of the iPad, app development trends that for a while preferred iPhone first; and, yes, iMessage.
All of those have their own complicated and oroboros-like causes and effects, with some being force multipliers, meaning that pointing at any one thing as the cause for any other is a little bit of a fool's errand, so I'll just say they're definitely related.
Which I guess is the chicken and the egg problem.