I'm concerned less about lawsuits and more about in-grown group messaging technology. iOS 5 just brought about half my friends/my entire family over to iMessages, which duplicate IM features like seeing the other person typing. It's so nifty that it makes me wish I had an iMessage interface on my computer, or an integration at least with iChat. And it makes me a much less likely user of mobile IM applications, because now I have a built-in equivalent that works without my searching out (or paying for) an application.
Which is too bad, because I wish we had more start-ups this honest. Make something somebody wants, charge them at a rate they're willing to pay. I'm increasingly sick of advertising models, and of start-ups that start with funding and then move towards a profit model (which is usually advertising).
WhatsApp still has one thing going for it that 'in-grown' tech does not - interoperability. BBM and iMessages only work on those platforms, WhatsApp transcends them.
The thing I don't like about WhatsApp vs BBM/iMessages is that I must share my phone number (at least I don't know another way) to chat. I think sharing a phone number is more personal than a pin like in BB.
It is also encoraging to see a subscription business that is reasonable priced at $1-2 for 3 years, way under what people tell you is the viable minimum.
Which is too bad, because I wish we had more start-ups this honest. Make something somebody wants, charge them at a rate they're willing to pay. I'm increasingly sick of advertising models, and of start-ups that start with funding and then move towards a profit model (which is usually advertising).