The brand new iPhone 16 Professional fon present in Cupertino, California,(Photograph by NIC COURY/AFP through Getty Photos)
With the launch of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, Apple has taken its first steps into the following technology of smartphones, however Tim Cook dinner and his staff received’t be capable of ship the advantages to everybody who needs them.
Due to the impression of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, Apple has determined towards releasing its generative AI software program suite—the clunkily backronymed Apple Intelligence—in Europe. Apple refuses to launch the software program to its European person base with out clear steerage from the regulatory authorities.
Europe has seen steady sales of the iPhone; 56.1 million models in 2021, 56 in 2022, and 56.8 million in 2023. That’s between half and two-thirds of US gross sales. The lack of the European market to Apple Intelligence is not going to have an instantaneous impression; the software program will help a minimal set of languages when obtainable, with the primary replace restricted to US English.
Nonetheless, this leaves Apple at an obstacle.
The likes of Google’s Gemini AI and Samsung’s Galaxy AI can push forward, gathering mountains of anonymized person knowledge to enhance the product in addition to supply continuous updates for the prevailing software program whereas working and releasing the second-generation software program (as within the case of Gemini AI rolling out with August’s launch of the Pixel 9 household).
Apple can do none of this, not less than with its European person base.
Generative AI is without doubt one of the present driving forces in smartphone buying selections. A recent survey by CNET means that 34 p.c of customers have privateness issues round AI. Apple has a robust model id that’s, partially, constructed across the promise of privateness, and the corporate can be leaning into this closely to attempt to differentiate its AI towards the competitors’s AI.
As a result of dominant function that the iPhone and iOS have within the European market, Apple has been labelled as a gatekeeper partially because of the closed ecosystem. As a gatekeeper, Apple should permit third-party corporations to work with its providers, primarily eradicating the walled backyard round these core providers and permitting competitors and person selection into the platform.
Apple has previously stated that “…because of the regulatory uncertainties caused by [the EU’s Digital Markets Act], “we don’t consider that we can roll out three of those options—iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Display Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence—to our EU customers this yr.”
Would Apple Intelligence fall below the gatekeeping necessities of the DMA? If that’s the case, this might power Apple to open up iOS to work with different generative AI software program options, giving customers the selection of AI software program they need to use on their private units. Apple is looking for readability on the interplay between Apple intelligence and the DMA, readability that has not been forthcoming.
Apple has determined it can keep away from the problem by refusing to permit its generative AI software program to be put in on a bought iPhone. It’s a selection that can be seen as a downgrade by Apple’s devoted group and depart European iPhones at an obstacle in comparison with the Android-based competitors.
