Stephen Shankland for CNET:

Here’s what I don’t like about iMessage, though: it’s yet another proprietary service.But when it comes to sending tidbits of text here and there, I don’t want lock-in.I want a standard.I’ve been spoiled here by e-mail. All I need is your e-mail address, and I can drop you a line, and vice-versa.

Oh you mean like RIM did with BBM. Instead of making it a unique service for its users, it opened it up to the world so anyone could use it… oh wait, no they didn’t.

It’s not up to Apple to provide users with a standard, they are a company that is differentiating its products from the competition. If you don’t like, don’t use it.