Having lived in Zimbabwe my whole life, I am squarely in the camp of relinquishing as much government control over the economy as possible. I am all for privatizing as much as we can because the inefficiencies and corruption displayed by the Zimbabwean government have traumatized me.
I’m telling you this to help you understand how conflicted I am about the EU’s intervention in the affairs of companies. I applauded the EU for forcing Apple to adopt USB-C on the iPhone, allow alternative app stores on iOS, and other measures.
The European Union aimed to enable users of Apple’s hardware to download apps from different app stores and allow developers to use their own payment systems, thus avoiding Apple’s high fees. What’s not to love about it?
However, Apple has been trying its best to comply with these rules as maliciously as possible. For example, while they now allow alternatives, restrictions like high commissions and technical challenges persist. This impacts developer flexibility and may not fully address concerns about market fairness.
Market Segmentation
If only that were the end of it. We are now seeing some market segmentation, with users in different regions getting different features and such.
Of course, as much as Apple is notorious for malicious compliance, Samsung has long engaged in this segmentation game. Most of us know that Samsung sells different phones under the same name in different markets.
The Galaxy S24 comes in two versions – one powered by the superior Qualcomm Snapdragon and one powered by Samsung’s own Exynos chip. The phones are sold under the same name and at the same price in different markets.
Of course, when we talk about different engines, it doesn’t matter how hard they try to match performance; there will be differences. Some regions will invariably get a raw deal. North America gets Snapdragon, and the rest of the world gets Exynos.
So, most of the world has been fleeced by Samsung for years, as Snapdragon has generally been better than Exynos, except perhaps for one year.
Segmented Features
The hardware shenanigans that Samsung engages in have slowly been copied but with a twist.
The latest iPhones, released just over a week ago, were not that interesting. The only major thing they had was a feature that wasn’t available at launch – Apple Intelligence.
I’m not here to debate whether Apple Intelligence is a big deal for most people. Regardless of where you stand on that debate, you would still want the latest and greatest features if you paid for an iPhone 16 or had a 15 Pro.
However, some iPhone users will not be getting the Apple Intelligence Beta when it launches in October. Apple says it will not be available in the EU or China due to regulatory and privacy concerns in these regions.
The EU has stringent data privacy regulations and requirements that may conflict with Apple’s data processing practices for the feature.
Similarly, China’s regulatory environment and data sovereignty laws create challenges for implementing such services. As a result, Apple is limiting the availability of Apple Intelligence in these regions to comply with local regulations and avoid potential legal issues.
Let’s be honest, what Apple is saying here makes sense. It probably takes longer to comply in regions with more stringent requirements. However, I wouldn’t put it past Apple to be using this to apply pressure on the EU.
If EU citizens complain about being left behind, that could put pressure on EU regulators to loosen some restrictions. I mean, it must sting for some Europeans to play second fiddle to users in countries like Zimbabwe, for example.
Zimbabwe is not in a position to make demands like the EU, so we will be getting Apple Intelligence along with the rest of the world, before China and the EU.
This is one consequence of having a powerful government that heavily intervenes in the affairs of companies. There are pros and cons.
Special Features
While we might be getting Apple Intelligence before Europe, we have been left behind in many other instances.
The best example that comes to mind is emergency SOS via satellite. It’s not Apple or Google’s fault that it’s not available here, but it remains that you pay even more after shipping and duties for your iPhone or Pixel device but don’t get all the features it offers.
On Apple’s side, there are the Apple Card, Apple Card Savings, Wallet IDs, and more that are exclusive to the US and/or a few other markets. Pixels have Call Screens that don’t ship out everywhere, among other features.
The situation is even worse when it comes to smartwatches.
I hate this state of affairs. Some of it cannot be helped; for example, Apple Pay Later needs to integrate with financial institutions, which is difficult to achieve globally.
However, some of it could be addressed, and these companies just aren’t motivated to work on allowing some of their features in third-world countries like ours, which only purchase a few thousand devices a year.
Samsung has no excuse, though. The practice of shipping flagships with different chips has to stop.
I don’t know. What do you think about this trend of users in different regions paying the same price but getting different feature sets?
We have all remarked that there aren’t too many hardware improvements to discuss in smartphones. It’s now all about software, but if we get different features at different times too, what does it mean? Someone’s getting a raw deal, and it’s usually us.
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What’s your take?