AirPods Live Translation Blocked for EU Users With EU Apple Accounts

[Unregistered 4U]

Yeah I wonder why, and why Apple still doesn’t pull the trigger and quit EU market altogether, if they despise heavy EU regulations so much. Apple certainly have the freedom to not operate in EU.

There’s still a buck to be made. Just looking at how the Apple Vision Pro is ONLY available in Germany and France (because the DMA says that a service/device has to be offered in at least 3 regions to be a gatekeeper), that’s Apple’s stance with the EU going forward. If the EU had clarified, up front, what the penalties for success were, Apple could have taken steps to limit sales to just France and Germany (where the lion’s share of the sales are anyway), limit the App Store to just Germany and France or kept track of how many unique monthly users there were and restrict sales when it got close to that number. They could have managed the situation in a lot of ways and still been profitable. Not AS profitable, but avoiding fines leaves money in the bank that can be a part of profits.

Apple’s driving sales in other regions, likely to offset the sales they’ll lose in the EU. Once the monthly users get below a certain point, the DMA says they’re no longer a gatekeeper and they can switch everything back to the way they prefer to run it. And, the EU will be the Android region they’ve always wanted to be, with just a minor slice of sales to a former gatekeeper.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I don’t see an issue here except: Apple hasn’t (yest) been transparent about how these conversational data are processed, and whether (or how) they’ll be used for Apple’s commercial benefit.

For anything Apple says, even if they say they’re being fully transparent, someone can ALWAYS say “they’re not being transparent”. For anyone that wants to believe they’re not transparent, there’s no level of information they can be given access to that would be able to convince them that Apple are transparent.

They’ll probably say a little more as they want to keep the story of the new iPhones live for a week running up to release and shortly after. But, people will always be able to say “they’re just not being transparent”. And no one can stop ‘em from saying it!

 

[Moukee]

In particular, the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) both impose strict requirements for how speech and translation services are offered. Regulators may want to study how Live Translation works, and how that impacts privacy, consent, data-flows, and user rights. Apple will also want to ensure its system fully complies with these rules before enabling the feature across EU accounts.

Wait, is it not fully on-device?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Well that’s a pain. Was thinking of getting them for an upcoming trade show I’m attending in France in October.

 

[Oscar_440]

I’m glad the UK left the EU. Stuff like this is quite scary to see how the EU is abusing its power.

You don’t have to look too far to see even worse abusing powers. Recently, the UK government tried to force Apple to create a backdoor in iCloud.

 

[Contact_Feanor]

There’s still a buck to be made. Just looking at how the Apple Vision Pro is ONLY available in Germany and France (because the DMA says that a service/device has to be offered in at least 3 regions to be a gatekeeper), that’s Apple’s stance with the EU going forward. If the EU had clarified, up front, what the penalties for success were, Apple could have taken steps to limit sales to just France and Germany (where the lion’s share of the sales are anyway), limit the App Store to just Germany and France or kept track of how many unique monthly users there were and restrict sales when it got close to that number. They could have managed the situation in a lot of ways and still been profitable. Not AS profitable, but avoiding fines leaves money in the bank that can be a part of profits.

gatekeeper designation has three criteria, one of which is 45 million monthly active end users. The Vision Pro could be released in every country in Europe and they'd still have less than half a million monthly active end users (since less than a million Vision Pro units are reportedly built). The EU has 450 million inhabitants, and in no universe is one in ten buying this generation of Vision Pro. That's not the reason they're not releasing it in more countries. The reason for that is the cost of translating the entire UI for countries or languages that will maybe have 10 or 20 active users.

 

[MDTyKe]

Blocked in the part of the world where within 50 miles people often speak another language. Ah yes, sense.

 

[surferfb]

gatekeeper designation has three criteria, one of which is 45 million monthly active end users.

Unless the EU decides otherwise. See, iPad.

Verstager:

The Digital Markets Act is a dynamic tool which allows us to tackle the realities of digital markets. Today, we have brought Apple’s iPadOS within the scope of the DMA obligations. Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers.

Breton

Today we conclude the first market investigation for qualitative designation under the DMA finding that also iPadOS is an
important gateway for businesses to reach consumers. Apple has now six months to comply with the DMA obligations. We continue monitoring market developments and will not hesitate to open new investigations should other services below the thresholds present characteristics to be considered important gateways for business users.

Source

 

[joecomo]

I fear that here our benign overlords have exaggerated a bit - they could have stopped after hiding Google Flights from our curious eyes …

 

[Sensamic]

Great, thanks EU. The dictators in Brussels and their rules

Samsung offers live translation features in EU with no problem. So why Apple has a problem?

 

[sflagel]

Lol? Why does nobody need to translate between spanish and English? I think that's a very, very common scenario?
Same with French and Italian?

Business people all speak English.
People in tourist destinations either speak English or the tourist speaks a few words of the host language.
Germanic languages and Latin languages are similar enough that one can guess.
There are no their scenarios for this use, we’re not going to chat someone up in a bar using AirPods.
The issue comes up with languages that are not Germanic nor Latin, and those are not covered.

 

[omenatarhuri]

Samsung offers live translation features in EU with no problem. So why Apple has a problem?

EU tends to sue American companies more since they have more money.

 

[surferfb]

Samsung offers live translation features in EU with no problem. So why Apple has a problem?

Samsung isn't a "gatekeeper" under the EU's DMA law and therefore doesn't have to give access to their live translation feature to anyone who asks for it.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

gatekeeper designation has three criteria, one of which is 45 million monthly active end users. The Vision Pro could be released in every country in Europe and they'd still have less than half a million monthly active end users (since less than a million Vision Pro units are reportedly built). The EU has 450 million inhabitants, and in no universe is one in ten buying this generation of Vision Pro. That's not the reason they're not releasing it in more countries. The reason for that is the cost of translating the entire UI for countries or languages that will maybe have 10 or 20 active users.

In this universe, the first iPhone was available only in Germany and France. If the gatekeeper rules had existed from the start, it’s very likely that the subsequent iPhones would have only been available in Germany and France as well. It’s too late for the iPhone now as it’s already been released. But, Apple has other new products in their pipeline that they are going to consider carefully how to release those in the EU.

By restricting the Vision Pro to France and Germany from the very start, if it or future iterations take off, they don’t have to make changes to the Vision App Store and they don’t have to make it work with other company’s products. And, as France and Germany are where most of the EU sales come from anyway, they’re not even missing many sales (and anyone that wants one can always travel to Germany or France to pick one up, they’re doing that now, so even some of those potential buyers are getting one anyway).

 

[fitcious]

does the original airpod pros get live translation? is it phone or airpod base?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Samsung offers live translation features in EU with no problem. So why Apple has a problem?

Is Samsung a gatekeeper according to the EU?

No.

Apple has a problem because they ARE a gatekeeper. That’s the regulatory structure the EU has created. It incentivizes companies to NOT be too successful. Because, if they’re not very successful, they can release products with tight integration that work very well with that company’s other products.

 

[Apple fanboy]

does the original airpod pros get live translation? is it phone or airpod base?

Not from what I’ve read. AirPod Pro 2 will do though. Still on series 1 AirPod Pro’s here.

 

[patearrings]

If my apple store is set to the UK but i live in Spain, will this work? Not sure if it using store location AND triangulation to block you.

 

[jlc1978]

Unless the EU decides otherwise. See, iPad.

That is the exact problem with the EU's approach to regulation, the requirements to be met are whatever the regulator decides and can change on their whim. Part of the issue, IMHO, as well is the EU I not a strong federal system and individual states hold too much veto power over decisions, which tends to move things to the lowest common denominator and and vague regulations to keep everyone happy.

If my apple store is set to the UK but i live in Spain, will this work? Not sure if it using store location AND triangulation to block you.

Until people actually try such arrangements, no one knows for sure. If I were Apple I'd setup triangulation as well to avoid issues with people doing what you are asking and thus running afoul of EU laws even if the feature is not avaiable in the EU. It also solve th issue of someone buying a phone in say the US and setting up a US Apple ID and then using it in the EU.

 

[RigSatMe]

YES, YES YES! - APPLE is this the best turn! Keep shredding EU users, please 🤣

 

[quietstormSD]

With no reason given, this looks like a tactical move by Apple to say, "look how your restrictions are delaying new features" and use public pressure to highlight this for people to get upset with the EU. I can't see EU objected to this feature, just Apple assuming it would and using this "delay" to get people upset

I wouldn't be that salty about it if I were you. You probably aren't missing much for a feature that you will rarely use.