A lot of people don’t understand the absolutely insane (and totally stupid) power of “blue text” in social settings, especially among teens. “Green text” is social suicide, largely because a lot of reactions and emojis and stuff don’t work. It’s also a status symbol… even though high end Android phones cost about what higher end iPhones cost and refurb iPhones are cheap.
The iMessage platform is probably the strongest lock in on iPhones. Break that and the phone market gets competitive again.
I was at a company holiday setting with some coworkers and one of them mentioned how the green/blue text thing genuinely factored into their dating decisions, on the basis that texting with someone without iMessage made the conversation clunkier and harder to build rapport.
So... I don't think this is just among nerds and tech elitists.
"Green text" will get you turned down for dates and ostracized from friend groups, especially in middle and high school but even (for dating) into adulthood in some cases.
Yes it's stupid, but people have turned far dumber things into status symbols like gigantic massively overpriced pedestrian-crusher trucks.
The iMessage platform is probably the strongest lock in on iPhones. Break that and the phone market gets competitive again.