Europe Pays More for the New iPhone and Gets Less AI

What Europeans Actually Pay

Apple's newest hardware carries its highest European price tags yet, and the AI feature that is meant to justify some of that premium is missing from the region entirely. The iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone, starts at 2,299 EUR in Germany and 2,319 EUR in Austria for the base 256GB model, compared with 1,999 USD in the United States, and the standard iPhone 18 Pro opens at 1,449 EUR in Germany, up 150 EUR from last year's model.

Preorders for the iPhone Duo open October 16, with shipping from October 23 in the first wave of markets and 28 more countries following October 30. Every one of those European buyers gets a phone running iOS 27 without the rebuilt, more capable Siri AI that ships the same week in the United States.

Why Siri's AI Rebuild Isn't Coming to EU iPhones

Apple's own account, published in a June 8 newsroom statement, is specific: EU regulators' interpretation of the Digital Markets Act requires Apple to grant any third-party virtual assistant nearly unlimited device access, including reading and sending messages, making purchases, and acting across other apps without the safeguards Apple says protect users elsewhere. Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said the company is deeply disappointed that EU users will not get Siri AI on iPhone or iPad when the new software ships.

Apple proposed an alternative, a Trusted System Agent that would let other assistants reach the same capabilities as Siri AI under tighter controls, phased in over 18 months. The European Commission rejected that plan along with Apple's other proposals; reporting on the exchange describes Commission officials characterizing contact with Apple on the idea as limited and lacking a concrete, workable proposal, a account that does not fully match Apple's own framing of a completed offer being turned down. Both sides agree on the outcome, not on who is actually blocking it.

What This Means If You Buy or Deploy Apple Hardware in Europe

A business fitting out staff with the new iPhone or iPad in the EU should budget for the higher launch price and plan around a genuine capability gap, not a temporary rollout delay: Apple's own statement names no date for Siri AI reaching EU iPhones, iPads, or Apple Watches. The one useful exception is that Siri AI does ship in the EU on macOS 27 and visionOS 27, so a Mac or Vision Pro fleet is not affected the same way a phone fleet is.

Any workflow a European team is planning around the new Siri AI, drafting messages, taking actions across apps, needs a fallback for iPhone and iPad users specifically until Apple and the Commission resolve the dispute, and there is currently no public timeline for that resolution.

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