• When asked to fix iPhone's issues texting Android, Tim Cook brushed it off with a flippant comment.

• The Apple CEO is ignoring years of user complaints instead of supporting the RCS standard.

• The company's refusal to fix this is a burden on iOS users, not Android users.

I was taken aback when Tim Cook recently told a reporter who's also an iPhone user that Apple won't fix texting issues with Android because users aren't asking for that — and if the person wanted to send high-quality videos to his mother, "buy your mom an iPhone."

I found the CEO's response surprisingly flippant. I believe it was also wrong.

For years, customers have been complaining about iPhone/Android texting problems on Apple's community site — the place where customers ask Apple to fix things. There are over 600 posts about it.

As a former Gartner and Jupiter analyst who has covered Apple for decades (and spent several years at Apple as a senior marketing executive) Cook's tone, however humorous it might have been intended, wasn't funny for users who want their devices to "just work." That includes the ability to message seamlessly to friends, family or colleagues who use Android phones.

Apple has made billions from Windows customers in the past

Back during the iPod's heyday, senior Apple executives pushed for iTunes on Windows with full iPod support, despite Steve Jobs reluctance. With this, Apple could sell iPods to, and make money from, Windows customers, they argued, far more money than by keeping iPod as an expensive Mac-only accessory.

It took these executives effort to get Jobs to relent (with Jobs' warning that if it failed they would be blamed) but it turned out to be one of the best decisions Apple ever made. iPod and iTunes became multi-billion businesses, a major source of Apple revenue for years, and the blueprint for Apple's current lucrative services business.

It's ironic, therefore, that some of the same executives have advocated not to allow messaging interoperability with Android.