Apple HomeView has a 7-inch display on a domed speaker base and recognises up to six people by face.
Credit: Apple
Apple has launched HomeView, a $299 smart display built around Siri AI, with shipping from 13 November in eight markets. The European Union is not one of them, because Siri AI is still blocked on iOS there.
Apple has launched HomeView, a $299 smart display built around the new Siri, with pre-orders open and shipping from 13 November. It is not for sale in the European Union.
Apple says so itself, in the last line of the pricing section of its own announcement. The reason it gives is that Siri AI is currently unavailable in iOS in the EU.
That block is four months old. Apple said in June that EU regulators had rejected every proposal it made, and gave no timeline for Siri AI on iPhone or iPad.
The dispute is about interoperability. Apple says the Commission’s reading would force it to give rival assistants the same deep access to messages, files and purchases that Siri has.
Europeans have paid for this before. The iPhone 18 Pro shipped in September at the same $1,199 price everywhere, without Siri AI in the EU and with a smaller battery.
This time there is nothing to buy. HomeView goes on sale in eight markets, the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and South Africa, where Siri AI runs in English and in beta.
The risk was flagged in July. TNW reported then that the hub’s case rested on Siri, and that European buyers might get the hardware without the assistant that justified it.
The hardware is ambitious. A seven-inch display recognises up to six faces, gating each person’s messages and calendar behind their face and a recently unlocked iPhone, with camera data held in an isolated part of the A18 chip.
Diplomacy has not shifted it. Tim Cook and the EU’s digital chief Henna Virkkunen held a constructive exchange by video in June, with no agreement announced.
Cook is now executive chairman, a role that includes engagement with policymakers. John Ternus became chief executive on 1 September.
The accessories arrive anyway. Apple Home Collection, a line of cameras, thermostats and a lock, was built with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.
Schneider Electric is French. Its Schneider Home arm also makes the three wall mounts for a device that cannot be sold in France.
Apple says it is working constructively with the EU in an attempt to find a path forward. It has said versions of that since June.
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