Because it's the replacement for SMS for Apple phones and doesn't require an account in the same way those other services do. It just uses the Apple account iPhone owners already need to have.
Really? It's never insisted upon for any core service?
> You can also use SMS without iMessage.
But most people don't because it's the default. MS was found to have a monopoly with IE even though there were alternatives.
Windows also was the dominant operating system with a market share in the 90% or higher. iOS isn't even the market leader in the US let alone the world, so can't really be a monopoly now can it?
How can that not be true if most people in the US use an iPhone as their phone?
https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/us-smartphone-...
This does as well:
https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/us-smartphone-market-share
I would’ve been highly surprised if Samsung and Apple were head-to-head in the USA.
Apple has more than double the market share that Samsung does.
The EU considers any party that has more than 40% of market share to be in a dominant market position.
This isn't directly relatable to the USA, of course, but it shows that its far from "clear cut".
Have a great day.
You might need to qualify "core service" here, but no. Calls, SMS, MMS, internet all work fine without an account. You need an account to download apps from the app store, but that's a different argument. If you wanted to, there are various methods to load apps up without an account too (side loading via Xcode, MDM, etc).