'Buy Your Mom An iPhone,' Tim Cook Says As Apple Snubs Android And Next-Gen Update

Apple Inc. AAPL refuses to adopt the next-generation RCS messaging protocol.

Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG maintains that a next-gen update would solve problems that arise when Apple customers send video and text messages from their iPhones to phones that have an Android operating system (Apple products run on the iOS operating system).

This issue came up again when Apple CEO Tim Cook made an appearance at the Vox 2022 Code conference held in Beverly Hills, California.

When Vox’s LiQuant Hunt complained that his mother can’t see the videos that he sends her due to the lack of interoperability, Cook offered up a solution: “Buy your mom an iPhone.”

According to Verge, Cook says Cupertino, California-based Apple isn’t focused on improving the user experience between iPhone and Android devices because that's not what the majority of customers want.

“I don’t hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy in on that at this point,” Cook said, when asked how Apple co-founder Steve Jobs would have felt about using the RCS standard in iMessage.

“I would love to convert you to an iPhone,” Cook added.

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One of the reasons why Apple is not inclined toward the RCS standard could be to keep its iPhone customer base intact.

“iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones,” an Apple executive said in an email, according to Verge.

Apple opened Thursday at $154.48 per share. It closed Wednesday's session 0.93% higher at $155.96, according to Benzinga Pro data.