People absolutely do buy Apple devices purely because of the lock-in. Many people in my own family have. Obviously there are others that just prefer iMessage on its own quality, that goes without saying (which is why GP didn't mention it).

If the product is so great why doesn't Apple make it available on more platforms? The answer is because it's not a product, it's a marketing tool. And a very successful one based on the widespread bullying it has caused.

Apple did not "invent" instant messaging.

Not many Apple products get made for non Apple devices.

If Zelda is so great why doesn’t Nintendo make it available on more platforms? Being able to run Nintendo games is a prime feature of the Switch product, and being able to run Apple software and services is a prime feature of an iPhone product. By your definition anything useful about an item is simply a marketing tool?

It’d be a very different world if nothing was allowed to have unique access to anything. It might even be better, but it would be a long way from this current version of capitalism.

The answer is the same: because their platform is not very good. So if buyers had the chance they'd instead buy Zelda games for the PC for instance.

It would be a real problem if Nintendo had a monopoly on good games on the US.

It's fine to use it if you think it's good, hell it probably is. What isn't nice is when I get forced to buy an iphone start using imessage because everyone else is when I don't want that, which is what is happening.

If iMessage is so good, why do so many people want to use Beeper instead? If I thought my Keurig were a good coffee machine, I wouldn't go out of my way to install a different coffee machine.