John Gruber, der neben der ominösen Pressemeldung auch noch ein Briefing von Apple zum Ausbleiben von Siri AI in der EU bekommen hat1:

There’s a massive gulf between what Apple is willing to do with Siri AI in the EU and what the Commission is demanding from Apple for DMA compliance. As things stand there’s no middle ground. Apple’s offers for compromise have been rejected. Unless one side changes its mind and concedes its current position, Siri AI will never come to the EU, and what Apple is saying here is that they’re unwilling to create the open-access-to-user-data system that the EC is demanding.

Michael Tsai wiederum schätzt insbesondere Apples der EU vorgeschlagenen Plan zur Entwicklung in den nächsten 18 Monaten wie folgt ein:

Apple is trying to give the impression that it did all this extra work to meet the DMA’s requirements, and yet the EC rejected its proposals, so it’s their fault Siri AI isn’t shipping in the EU. But it looks like the crux is that the Trusted System Agent is currently vaporware. What the EC rejected is that Apple wanted to be able to ship Siri AI now on the promise of future openness. The TSA would actually be built during this 18-month window of exclusivity. It’s not surprising that the EU would reject that proposal. The App Store doesn’t approve apps that flout the guidelines but promise to comply later. It doesn’t even entertain proposals of the form, “If I built this would it be approved?”

„Vaporware“ klingt deutlich anders. Und mehr nach dem, was EU-Kom­missions­sprecher Thomas Regnier auf LinkedIn (what?) preisgibt:

[Instead] of offering a compliant solution, Apple asked to be exempted from its interoperability obligations under the DMA — and this for 18 months.

That’s not an option. EU rules are non negotiable.

Ich schätze, der Markt wird‘s richten. Als könnte Apple es sich langfristig leisten, iOS in der EU ohne AI-Integration anzubieten, während die Konkurrenz genau das tut. Allerdings könnte das noch etwas dauern.

1. Gruber ist bekanntlich ein hervor­ragender, von mir sehr geschätzter Apple-Beobachter, ist aber in seiner Bericht­erstattung zum Machtkampf zwischen Cupertino und Brüssel für meinen Geschmack oft zu nah an Apple-Positionen. Um nicht zu sagen, er übernimmt deren EU-kritische Standpunkte. [↩]