Bloomberg’s latest report contains some bad news for Apple customers in the EU: You’ll miss out on some of the best new features in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia in 2024 (and maybe longer).
Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring to Mac and SharePlay Screen Sharing will not be available in the EU in 2024. Apple blames the DMA and its interoperability requirements. In a statement, Apple said:
We are concerned that the DMA’s interoperability requirements may require us to compromise the integrity of our products in a way that puts user privacy and data security at risk.
Apple’s statement to the Financial Times was slightly different:
Due to regulatory uncertainties caused by the Digital Markets Act, we do not expect to be able to deploy three of these projects. [new] features – iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing improvements and Apple Intelligence – to our EU users this year.
This is not to say that the EU will never benefit from these features; Apple only says it won’t this year because it’s operating under “uncertainties.” It may take time for EU regulatory agencies to say whether the features violate the DMA in their current form or not, and if not, what Apple should do to make them compliant while still protecting privacy and user security.
Apple Intelligence would only support US English this year anyway, with other languages coming in 2025 and beyond. This would limit its effectiveness somewhat in the EU, but features like iPhone mirroring on Mac would have been useful to everyone, regardless of language.
