A good part of the new features that Apple announced two weeks ago at its WWDC conference, including its AI ecosystem, called Apple Intelligence, will not reach European users of its devices at least this year. The reason for this suspension is the fact that the European Commission has designated the company as a gatekeeper for its iOS and iPadOS operating systems, which may also affect other announced technologies.
This Monday, Brussels revealed that it was investigating Apple for possible violations of the EU digital markets law (DMA) in developers’ access to its App Store.
The company alleges safety reasons for leaving its European customers with fewer benefits this year
Until now, the company led by Tim Cook had made changes such as opening its app store to third parties or modifying the iPhone connector in compliance with the requirements of the Community Executive, but the Commission considers that it has not done so in an appropriate manner. the law on several points, which is why it has opened an investigation that could conclude with a record fine of up to 38,000 million euros, the equivalent of 10% of its annual worldwide turnover.
If until now Apple had given in to several EU demands, with regard to AI and other new features, for the first time, it seems willing to not give in, although it is willing to negotiate some changes.
An Apple spokesperson indicated last weekend that its intention “is to make these technologies available to all users.” “However,” he objected, “due to regulatory uncertainties caused by the Digital Markets Act, we do not believe we will be able to roll out three of these features – iPhone Mirroring, improvements to screen sharing with SharePlay and Apple Intelligence – to our EU users.” this year”.
The cause that Apple alleges for leaving its EU customers without artificial intelligence or the function mirroring which reproduces the iPhone on the Mac screen, is about security: “We are concerned that the DMA interoperability requirements could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in a way that puts user privacy and security at risk. of the data.” The company promised to “collaborate with the European Commission to try to find a solution” that allows it to offer these benefits “without compromising its security.”
