Apple's Siri AI troubles prove Samsung's messy multi-AI strategy was right

Apple spent considerable time talking about the new Siri AI experience during its launch event for the iPhone 18 series and the iPhone Duo earlier this month. For all of its enhancements, it does have several limitations that vindicate the approach Samsung has taken to mobile AI.

Most of Siri AI's core features are only available in the English language at launch, and they're not going to be available initially across all 27 European Union member states. These include features like Audio Intelligence, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap.

The company hasn't provided any timeline for when they'll arrive. What this means that even though customers in the EU will pay full price for the latest Apple products, they will not be able to take full advantage of the many new AI capabilities that they offer.

The restrictions aren't just in the EU. Siri AI won't currently work for anyone who has an Apple Account based in mainland China, which happens to be a very lucrative market for the company. This is the electronics equivalent of a raw deal.

Both of these markets account for a significant chunk of Apple's total sales. It earns hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from the EU and China. Yet, customers there will not be able to experience the headline AI innovations in Apple's most consequential product in years, the iPhone Duo.

The device that was supposed to redefine Apple's relationship with the premium device market is, for the majority of the world's most lucrative smartphone regions, a phone without its most important software features.

It's not like Apple doesn't want customers there to experience these features. This has more to do with regulation than with Apple's unwillingness to offer these features.

EU's regulations require that competing voice assistants must have the same deep device access that Siri enjoys, something that Apple isn't too happy about. Since the company doesn't want to open up that can of worms, it's not providing any timeline for Siri AI's availability in the EU.

Samsung has always taken a more open approach to AI on its mobile devices. It never withheld capabilities from users just because it wanted to have control over every aspect of the AI experience on its devices.

That's why Google's Gemini, which Apple has also relied on for Siri AI, does the heavy lifting in Galaxy AI. Samsung's own device models operate in a supporting role, while Perplexity improves Bixby's capabilities.

The argument certainly can be made that this approach lacks the clean, singular vision of a company that knows what it wants the AI experience on its devices to be. It produces a fragmented user experience compared to the coherent intelligence that Apple's Siri AI promises.

Yet, this architecture achieves something that Siri AI still has no timeline for: near universal availability, with mainland China being the obvious outlier, where Samsung focuses on partnerships with local AI solutions.

Opting for a more open approach to AI has not only enabled Samsung to provide access to various different AI experiences on its devices but to also ensure that users everywhere get to have the same experience.

It's also true that one major reason why Samsung adopted a multi-AI approach was primarily because it either lacked the capability or the will to go at it alone like Apple has tried. Yet, the decision to push as many AI features as possible out quickly while relying on different partners has also resulted in a globally deployable architecture.

Apple has navigated regulatory obstacles before, so there should come a time where a more robust Siri AI experience is ultimately made available in all markets where the new products are offered. But it asks customers to wait, and whether or not they want to is another matter entirely.

As far as AI capabilities are concerned, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 launched globally complete, while the iPhone Duo arrived globally constrained. For customers seeking the best mobile AI experience, this stark contrast is the ultimate deciding factor.

Both devices cost close to $2,000. When spending that kind of premium, buyers face a straightforward choice: walk away with a fully realized product today, or pay upfront for a promise with no clear timeline.