From HomeView to Muse: all the US technology that isn’t making its way to Europe
The new Apple device featuring Siri AI is not the only one to be excluded from the single market. Meta, Google, OpenAI and Amazon have also omitted features or postponed releases
Key points
Apple’s announcement of its new home automation display HomeView has sparked enthusiasm but also raised concerns about developments in the European technology market. The device will not be launched in the single market, but this is not an isolated case. The reasons lie in corporate policies and strategies, but also in the EU’s current rules on competition and privacy.
In the case of Homeview, in fact, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) poses a problem for Apple. The regulation had been an obstacle since June, when Apple unveiled Siri AI – the assistant now built into Homeview – which was launched in the single market only on Mac and Vision Pro, but not on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch because these devices are considered ‘gatekeepers’ by the EU.
The company had been engaged in lengthy discussions – so far to no avail – with the Commission to ask how it could introduce its own assistant without breaching the rules of the DMA. Apple had even gone so far as to request exemptions from the DMA because opening up to competition would have meant that all third-party models authorised by the user would have access to personal data – a move which, according to Apple itself, would have created ‘security loopholes’. Following the announcement of Siri AI, the Commission revisited the issue, stating that ‘nothing in the DMA prevents Apple from launching new products in the EU’.
Gemini is different in the EU
Google, too, is firmly opposed to the DMA, but with a different strategy. Without any prior consultation, Google had already launched Gemini – its artificial intelligence service – on Android phones back in June 2024. The Commission then ruled last July against the exclusion of other models, requiring the operating system to be opened up to rival assistants as well. Google subsequently responded with an appeal to the General Court of the European Union, made public on 29 September; however, in the meantime, the features of its Gemini service have changed, and not all of them have been rolled out in the EU.
Personal Intelligence, announced in January, is Gemini’s tool that links data from various Google services, including Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube and Google Search; this integration enables it to provide tailored responses by retrieving personal information. The system was launched last January and was extended in March to all users with free accounts, though it remains unavailable in Europe.
