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RottenApple wrote: Especially since iPhone sales account for 50% (approx) of all smart phone sales in the US *AND* worldwide markets.

I would love to see the source for this. Everything I read lately paints a different picture - although Apple still seems to hold the market share lead for tablets.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:A little known fact about iPhones/Apple can bit you in the rump, if you aren't careful. When an iPhone sends a text to another iPhone, the message is automatically converted to an iMessage. (I have no idea why this is done, unless to cause the very problems it is causing.)

Mr. Cotton,

I agree complete that Apple needs to address the issue of persistent use of iMessage for those who no longer have iPhones - and I am anything but an Apple fanboy. I carry a Galaxy S4 currently and I can barely stand to help my kids with their own iPhones.

But I can describe one of the primary reasons technological reasons iPhone to iPhone messages are converted to iMessage. iMessage treats group messages (those to more than one person) differently than standard text messaging.

-When a group message is sent via SMS (traditional text message) - everyone gets a copy of the message and can see who sent it. They cannot, however, see the other recipients and they can only reply to the sender.

-By sending the message as an iMessage, the whole group can interact to the message thread. Everyone who received the message can see all recipients and replies are sent to everyone. In my opinion, this has both good and bad connotations. But it is certainly key to how iMessage is utilized and it is HUGE for teanagers - even to the point of being exclusionary to teens who don't have iPhones. Again, I am not saying it is a good thing - but it is what it is. Here is a pretty good article (HuffPo - sorry) about this from a teen perspective: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/2 ... 22095.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not having an iPhone can be social suicide, notes Casey. One of her friends found herself effectively exiled from their circle for six months because her parents dawdled in upgrading her to an iPhone. Without it, she had no access to the iMessage group chat, where it seemed all their shared plans were being made.

"She wasn’t in the group chat, so we stopped being friends with her,” Casey says. “Not because we didn’t like her, but we just weren’t in contact with her.”

I know it seems petty - and that is because it is. But it doesn't change the fact that it is happening. It is proprietary issues like this that make me leap with joy when I see Apple smartphone market share rapidly falling:
http://www.mercurynews.com/60-second-bu ... one-battle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://pocketnow.com/2013/08/13/has-apple-lost" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think the public can only benefit with competition which will force companies to use standardized communication methods. One of the things that has always infuriated me is that Apple will rake other companies over the coals for being proprietary (i.e. Adobe with Flash) and yet their entire business model is built around proprietary services and exclusivity.

For what it is worth - I have been trying Google Hangouts to allow similar functionality with my iPhone using family. They have an app for Apple and Android. It allows similar group messaging capabilities as well as video chat. But unlike iMessage - it is intended to be cross platform - it works on Android, Apple iOS as well as PC and Mac computers.

jmra wrote: "The Samsung Galaxy S4 has experienced a few problems. Its battery has been the biggest issue. There have been reports of batteries draining down very quickly, and even of them swelling up. Samsung has responded (always a sign that an issue is serious) by offering battery replacements to any owners of Galaxy S4s affected by the problem."

Apple has had its own fair share of battery issues - including swelling and exploding batteries:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3718734" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And, unlike Samsung Galaxy line - the batteries are not user replaceable.