No, competition is really important. Apple can be very consumer-unfriendly at times (see the ongoing raging about the 8gb ram Macbook Pros) and without competition, there’s nothing stopping them from being even worse.

Teens don’t care about having a cohesive messaging app. The green vs blue bubble stigma has nothing to do with the usability of the app. It has everything to do with blue bubbles being a signifier of status because Apple = more expensive in people’s minds. Google has to penetrate that first.