The new iPhone 16 Pro fon unveils in Cupertino, California (Photo by NIC COURY/AFP via Getty Images)
With the release of iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 ProApple has taken its first steps into the next generation of smartphones, but Tim Cook and his team won’t be able to deliver the benefits to everyone who wants them.
Thanks to the impact of the European Union Digital Markets ActApple has decided not to release its flagship artificial intelligence software suite—the impossible to call Apple Intelligence—in Europe. Apple refuses to release the software to its European user base without clear guidance from the regulatory authorities.
Europe has seen steady iPhone sales; 56.1 million units in 2021, 56 in 2022 and 56.8 million in 2023. That’s between half and two-thirds of US sales. Apple Intelligence’s loss of the European market will not have an immediate impact. the software will support a minimal set of languages when available, with the first update limited to US English.
However, this leaves Apple at a disadvantage.
Like Google Gemini AI and Samsung Galaxy AI it can go ahead, collecting mountains of anonymized user data to improve the product, as well as offer ongoing updates to existing software as it works and releases second-generation software (as in the case of Gemini AI released with the Pixel 9 launch in August family).
Apple can’t do any of that, at least with its European user base.
Generative AI is one of the current driving forces in smartphone purchasing decisions. Recent research by CNET suggests that 34 percent of users have privacy concerns about artificial intelligence. Apple has a strong brand identity built, in part, on the promise of privacy, and the company will lean on that heavily to try to differentiate its AI from the competition’s.
Due to the dominant role that the iPhone and iOS have in the European market, Apple has been characterized as a concierge partly due to the closed ecosystem. As a janitorApple needs to allow third-party companies to partner with its services, effectively removing the walled garden around these core services and allowing competition and user choice on the platform.
Apple has previously stated that “…because of the regulatory uncertainties it brings [the EU’s Digital Markets Act]”We don’t think we’ll be able to make three of these features—iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence—available to our EU users this year.”
Will Apple Intelligence fall under the gatekeeping requirements of the DMA? If so, that would force Apple to open up iOS to work with other productive AI software solutions, giving users the choice of which AI software they want to use on their personal devices. Apple is seeking clarity on the interaction between Apple Intelligence and DMA, clarity that has not been forthcoming.
Apple has decided it will avoid the problem by refusing to allow its artificial intelligence software to be installed on an iPhone it has purchased. It’s a choice that will be seen as a downgrade by Apple’s dedicated community and will leave European iPhones at a disadvantage compared to the Android-based competition.
Now read the latest iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch headlines from Glowtime in this week’s roundup of Apple news, here at Forbes…
