Apple Will Delay Bringing New Features to Users in the EU

[ProbablyDylan]

Apple's vice president of legal, Kyle Andeer, said, "We've already had to make the decision to delay the release of products and features, we announced this month for our EU customers."

Does Apple think they look good when they act so petty?

 

[one more]

How much of that 400 million is outside of the EU?

You mean out on work or holiday? 😉 The current EU population is currently counted at around 449 million.

 

[H2SO4]

but they do like to work with apple to spy on the Uyghurs.

The iPhone value proposition in the EU is already abysmal, and now that they're getting features at a later date it's even worse. Unfortunately Gen Z is obsessed with iphones so even a new Poco F1/Galaxy Fold moment wouldn't be enough

Can you share your thinking on this?

 

[Shirasaki]

The ever greater divide between EU and USA, demonstrated on Apple iOS iPadOS macOS etc alongside service release.
Cue the “quit EU already” comments.
Megacorps MUST be hampered so they don’t become way too powerful. But I see 47% of Americans strongly disagree. Hey, just lobby Apple to pull out of global market and restrict device and service release to EU only. Apple I’m sure will listen and act accordingly.

 

[WeLikeVodka]

Can you share your thinking on this?

Sure, let's go.

We live in an era where operating systems are becoming less important since pretty much everything we do is in a browser. With this in mind let's take an iPhone 16 with 256 gigs of storage. We all know Apple is a bunch of grifters when it comes to storage. Said iphone costs ~1000€ where I live.

If you want to play more demanding games or you shoot a lot of video, 128 gigs is a joke these days.

I will list some phones from the android side that also have 256 gigs and can be seen as competitors.

Galaxy S25 is about 700€.
The S25 Ultra is about 1050€.
The Z Flip 6 (7) is about 850€.
And the Poco X7 Pro, a mid-range phone with a CPU close to flagship levels, is 300€.

I'm not gonna go ahead and make graphs, but this iPhone 16 is a worse value proposition than all phones mentioned above. I understand that 120hz refresh rates can contribute to doomscrolling, but it's not just that - we also have bigger batteries, especially with the Poco, or you have the S25 Ultra with its camera system and pen, stripped as it is.

Meanwhile, the S25 and the Flip are strong competitors if you look for a small form factor phone.

Finally there's the iPhone 16e itself, which costs less and is much more suited for corporate use than the base 16.

 

[cbaca51]

EU keeps getting screwed. Sucks for you guys

 

[ElCidRo]

Yeah, like Apple is in a good position to lose sales now. 🥲
They already lost China, now they want to lose market share in the EU too? Bad idea. Tim Cook needs to do an 180 and stop fighting common sense.

 

[System603]

In my corner of the world Apple is extremely popular. Many people have the trifecta of Apple products: MacBooks, iPhone, iPad, watch and AirPods. Teens in the US are obsessed with iPhones. I gather it’s a geographical thing. But people buy what they think is best for them.

I understand better where you're coming from in your discussion arguments now. In many parts of the EU, such brand loyalty just isn't that much of a thing. I currently use "everything Apple," but I'm very much the exception. It's very common to mix and match devices based just on personal needs here. Random example:

• iPhone for the ease of use or many other good reasons
• but Garmin watch for better sports tracking
• Sony headphones for ANC and EQ options
• Windows laptop (e.g. Dell) for specific apps, lighter form factor or even light gaming

Or the opposite setup:

• Android phone for more features (you might consider useless or gimmicks) or better cameras for photos or foldable screens or stylus support, etc.
• Sometimes even paired with AirPods
• Android/Wear watch for integration as Apple Watch doesn't support Android yet. Or Garmin, again for fitness tracking
• but MacBook Air, chosen for its performance and longevity at a great price

Whenever Apple limits interoperability or holds back some features, it just makes their devices feel less appealing to choose or worse case, more of a hassle.

 

[Marshall73]

Finally, we now have one single actual benefit of Brexit 🤣

 

[Tanax]

The question is, why is it that Apple, the privacy company, cannot make a feature that tracks your every location, available in EU where the privacy laws are stricter?

Regardless of what you think of EU or Apple, this is very fishy to me.

Also the fact that Apple still haven't released Fitness+ or News+ in my country, for instance, because it's not available in my language, points to a problem at Apple, not with EU - even if EU does make it more tricky for them.

 

[Ctrlos]

EU keeps getting screwed. Sucks for you guys

If this were the innovative Apple of 10 years ago and they were witholding something like Apple Pay I would 100% agree with you. But when their bargaining chip is Apple Intelligence and Apple Maps they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Ctrlos]

I understand better where you're coming from in your discussion arguments now. In many parts of the EU, such brand loyalty just isn't that much of a thing. I currently use "everything Apple," but I'm very much the exception. It's very common to mix and match devices based just on personal needs here. Random example:

• iPhone for the ease of use or many other good reasons
• but Garmin watch for better sports tracking
• Sony headphones for ANC and EQ options
• Windows laptop (e.g. Dell) for specific apps, lighter form factor or even light gaming

Or the opposite setup:

• Android phone for more features (you might consider useless or gimmicks) or better cameras for photos or foldable screens or stylus support, etc.
• Sometimes even paired with AirPods
• Android/Wear watch for integration as Apple Watch doesn't support Android yet. Or Garmin, again for fitness tracking
• but MacBook Air, chosen for its performance and longevity at a great price

Whenever Apple limits interoperability or holds back some features, it just makes their devices feel less appealing to choose or worse case, more of a hassle.

There is a very good reason open standards like Email and SMS have stood the test of time and nobody uses AIM or ICQ anymore. Ask Sony PSVita owners how the use of proprietary memory cards went!

 

[Marshall73]

In Europe Apple etc have the right to challenge these rulings. They will do so as long as the cost of it is less that compliance. In China however, they just bend over and take it in the butt because no amount of money will win the argument for them.

 

[H2SO4]

Sure, let's go.

We live in an era where operating systems are becoming less important since pretty much everything we do is in a browser. With this in mind let's take an iPhone 16 with 256 gigs of storage. We all know Apple is a bunch of grifters when it comes to storage. Said iphone costs ~1000€ where I live.

If you want to play more demanding games or you shoot a lot of video, 128 gigs is a joke these days.

I will list some phones from the android side that also have 256 gigs and can be seen as competitors.

Galaxy S25 is about 700€.
The S25 Ultra is about 1050€.
The Z Flip 6 (7) is about 850€.
And the Poco X7 Pro, a mid-range phone with a CPU close to flagship levels, is 300€.

I'm not gonna go ahead and make graphs, but this iPhone 16 is a worse value proposition than all phones mentioned above. I understand that 120hz refresh rates can contribute to doomscrolling, but it's not just that - we also have bigger batteries, especially with the Poco, or you have the S25 Ultra with its camera system and pen, stripped as it is.

Meanwhile, the S25 and the Flip are strong competitors if you look for a small form factor phone.

Finally there's the iPhone 16e itself, which costs less and is much more suited for corporate use than the base 16.

Oh I see. Pretty straight forward.
For some reason I thought there was something cryptic to your post.

 

[Pudlo]

Interesting, but I don't understand how this works because it then seems like Apple wouldn't be able to operate in the E.U. because wouldn't they have to support all E.U. member main languages at the same level as they support English? I can't imagine that happens. I take it you mean just A.I. features would have to support those languages equally?

For now Apple has support in every country in their local language and MacOS and iOS and other OSes all support different languages. But when we talk about new AI features which are hugely language based (LLM means large language model for a reason) Apple decided to start with main world languages only and even that is not working that good so from the get go they are breaking all the rules of other markets but ofc they are doing so bc they know that if they support French Spanish and German, biggest countries, it will look not that bad.

Very strange; Apple doesn't care about the color of your skin, only your currency.

And in the U.S., quite a number of goods and services are much harder to access in rural locales vs. large urban ones (I'm old enough to remember America before online shopping, and I spent most of my childhood in a really rural area). What drives this is practical, not racism or other bias. In Montana you probably won't be catching a subway train...but I suspect land is often a lot cheaper.

All I was trying to explain is that European Union is similar to United States but instead of states we have united countries, and those countries have all different languages but for example are mostly white (I',m not trying to get into a race talk jsut trying to explain). The sole base for European Union was that we are all equal and have free of trade and movement etc. despite your language or color. From that perspective, Apple saying that for now they will only support German and Spain languages for whatever reason is same as like Porsche saying, we only support people from California and only if their skin is black or white enough. Like just trying to show you that it would be the main topic of all internet forums if POrsche would do that, but meanwhile Apple is doing exactly that: we know you have that union and you are all equal but we want to support only biggest countries bc it is cheaper (or for whatever reason) and stop arguing with us, bow or we will stop supporting EU at all. (ofc it is oversimplified but it looks like that from here)

 

[I7guy]

EU keeps getting screwed. Sucks for you guys

The eu brought it on themselves.

 

[I7guy]

Sure, let's go.

We live in an era where operating systems are becoming less important since pretty much everything we do is in a browser. With this in mind let's take an iPhone 16 with 256 gigs of storage. We all know Apple is a bunch of grifters when it comes to storage. Said iphone costs ~1000€ where I live.

You’re making the case that smartphones are not a necessity as many claim. I agree it’s a convenient form factor.

If you want to play more demanding games or you shoot a lot of video, 128 gigs is a joke these days.

I will list some phones from the android side that also have 256 gigs and can be seen as competitors.

Galaxy S25 is about 700€.
The S25 Ultra is about 1050€.
The Z Flip 6 (7) is about 850€.
And the Poco X7 Pro, a mid-range phone with a CPU close to flagship levels, is 300€.

Sure they are all competitors. Even a flip phone is a competitor. Buy what’s best for you.

I'm not gonna go ahead and make graphs, but this iPhone 16 is a worse value proposition than all phones mentioned above. I understand that 120hz refresh rates can contribute to doomscrolling, but it's not just that - we also have bigger batteries, especially with the Poco, or you have the S25 Ultra with its camera system and pen, stripped as it is.

I can’t speak for others about the iPhone 16. Everybody has their own price to value ratio.

Meanwhile, the S25 and the Flip are strong competitors if you look for a small form factor phone.

Some people just like Apple hardware and software. Even though apples market share globally is dwarfed by the android o/s.

Finally there's the iPhone 16e itself, which costs less and is much more suited for corporate use than the base 16.

 

[turbineseaplane]

But I see 47% of Americans strongly disagree.

The same 47% also seem to not believe in science, research, public infrastructure investment, education ... and on down the line.

We're in a mess over here.

 

[I7guy]

The ever greater divide between EU and USA, demonstrated on Apple iOS iPadOS macOS etc alongside service release.
Cue the “quit EU already” comments.
Megacorps MUST be hampered so they don’t become way too powerful. But I see 47% of Americans strongly disagree. Hey, just lobby Apple to pull out of global market and restrict device and service release to EU only. Apple I’m sure will listen and act accordingly.

You want to advance and progress. Megacorps get that job done. You want oil? Megacorps get that job done. Before you get your wish I would think it through.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

The eu brought it on themselves.

This is the sort of language you see in abusive interpersonal relationships all the time. Sort of sets the tone for this whole debacle doesn't it?

 

[BaldiMac]

The question is, why is it that Apple, the privacy company, cannot make a feature that tracks your every location, available in EU where the privacy laws are stricter?

Just a guess, but I'd think that they are worried that the interoperability rules in the DMA may require them to make the visited locations feature available to third parties.

 

[Sophisticatednut]

And what do you think will happen if Apple continue delaying or withholding the features, thus falling behind Google Maps, Waze, HERE and other competitors?

All of these third party apps are readily available on iOS, so Apple Maps might just start losing the user base. Less users = less live data, less live data = less accuracy, so this could draw even more people away.

It is not good neither for Apple, nor for users who happen to like and use Apple Maps, like myself.

Well. I guess Apple can if they want dismantle their marketshare and answer to their shareholders why they are giving up billions by intentionally giving up the initiative and not deploying competing features 🤷‍♂️

Apple Maps started with close to zero users and crappy data and accuracy. Sometimes youngsters to invest that capital and resources to make it viable

 

[H2SO4]

EU keeps getting screwed. Sucks for you guys

It really doesn't. I prefer the EU rules keeping the markets relatively safe. From the article all I can see that we've lost is, "Tools such as "visited places" in the Maps app will not be available". No other details to cry about at the moment.

 

[I7guy]

This is the sort of language you see in abusive interpersonal relationships all the time. Sort of sets the tone for this whole debacle doesn't it?

This is a government entity who decided to over-regulate an American tech company. And yes I agree the eu has been abusive to Apple.

 

[drrich2]

Megacorps MUST be hampered so they don’t become way too powerful.

Ironically, a lot of people think that about governments. Governments and businesses are both staffed by the same species, humans.

We live in an era where operating systems are becoming less important since pretty much everything we do is in a browser.

Disagree but it depends on individual usage and platform.

I will list some phones from the android side that also have 256 gigs and can be seen as competitors.

Galaxy S25 is about 700€.
The S25 Ultra is about 1050€.
The Z Flip 6 (7) is about 850€.
And the Poco X7 Pro, a mid-range phone with a CPU close to flagship levels, is 300€.

I'm not gonna go ahead and make graphs, but this iPhone 16 is a worse value proposition than all phones mentioned above.

Perhaps true if you go by spec.s and not experience. If the iPhone and iPad only ran Android, I imagine a lot of current users would switch to other Android device makers. But the 'Apple experience' (at the risk of coming off with fanboy grandiosity) has enough value to many people to drive the iOS market. Even Android devices can do pretty much the same things, they don't offer the same experience of doing them.

Also the fact that Apple still haven't released Fitness+ or News+ in my country, for instance, because it's not available in my language, points to a problem at Apple, not with EU - even if EU does make it more tricky for them.

No experience with Fitness+, but regarding News+...how would that work? Given the plethora of English-publications in Apple News+, what would, oh, say, a Greek version look like? Apple News+ with some Greek publications added, A.I.-driven translation of English publications like one might do using the Chrome browser on foreign language webpages, or what? And how does the E.U. 'make it more tricky' for them?