> It's pretty clear to me that blocking Beeper is an attempt to ensure that iMessage doesn't have a viable substitute.

That's not really how that works. That's a company blocking unauthorized access to a service they provide. BBM used to be only available on blackberry devices as well, they never got sued over blocking attempts from others to use BBM outside of their devices (that I'm aware of).

I am aware BBM is no longer platform locked. Didn't know they shutdown BBM...