Apple will release 8 very different iPhone 16 models

Nominally, all four 2024 iPhone handsets – the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max – will be able to run Apple’s take on AI, which it calls Apple Intelligence. 

The iPhone 16 without App Store

Apple Developer team, August ’24

By the end of the year, an iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max user in the EU will get way more control over Apple’s system or default apps than users in the US can even dream about. 

An iPhone 16 without an App Store? No problem, that one can be gone and replaced by one of the third-party application stores that popped up after Europe enforced its Digital Market Act’s antitrust legislation against Apple’s walled iOS garden.

The iPhones in Europe will have a Default Apps Section where they can simply uninstall a stock browser, mail, application store, and even payment apps, and replace them with a third party alternative. Not only that, but “in future software updates, users will get new default settings for dialing phone numbers, sending messages, translating text, navigation, managing passwords, keyboards, and call spam filters,” promises Apple, though the navigation swap that will, say, replace Apple with Google Maps, is coming next year.

AltStore instead of App Store? No problem, Europe! | Image credit – AltStore

The iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence

Oh, sorry, European buyers, US users will have an AI-powered iPhone 16, and you won’t!

This year, the European Commission morphed its General Data Protection Regulation software initiative into an even more formidable personal privacy, security, and consumer choice legislation. The Digital Markets Act deals with antitrust legislation, forcing Apple to allow alternatives to the Safari browser, for instance. Then there is the Digital Services Act that demand communication platforms like X, Facebook, or Telegram to watch for and take down illicit or misleading content. 

The last part of the three pillars of European tech regulations, however, is the AI Act that does the same but for content generated with the help of artificial intelligence, requiring utmost transparency and placing restrictions on AI models that target general use scenarios like the OpenAI, Google Gemini, and, yes, Apple’s nascent AI platform.

After blowing the AI craze out of proportion, however, as the Silicon Valley usually does, the initial excitement and overinvestment had subsided. Moreover, the tech company stocks nosedived on the realization that people don’t find what they are peddling exciting enough to, say, buy a new iPhone 16 solely on the AI-powered features.

No typing to Siri on European iPhones | Image credit – Apple

An iPhone 16 bought in Europe won’t have even a whiff of Apple Intelligence, but all major stock apps on it could be stripped away and replaced with the user’s preferred alternative, like swapping the Safari browser with a fully functional Chrome.

At first glance, it will be the same iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max everywhere. Once picked up, however, an iPhone 16 for the American market, and an iPhone 16 for Europe will be two different iPhones in iOS look, feel, and features.