Consumer waiting game: Why do tech products launch later in Europe?

Europeans are now used to major tech product launches arriving late: what debuts in the United States typically reaches the European Union three to five months later, and in some cases nearly a year.

One can dismiss some of these features and products as “nice to have”, but the delay still matters for European consumers and businesses. Americans get a head start - baking them into workflows, discovering new use cases, and squeezing out productivity gains. By the time it lands in the EU, users outside the EU already have mature workflows, tutorials, and even monetised projects up and running.

Not all launches in the EU are delayed because of our regulatory framework, but it is increasingly one of the main drivers of such delays. In addition to financial considerations, European startups and scale-ups often cite regulatory compliance as a reason to scale in the United States rather than the European Union.

Regulatory roadblocks: present and future

Tech companies often pinpoint the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) as the main reason why European consumers are missing out on certain innovations their American counterparts can enjoy back home. Yet, this is not the only reason. 

Europe’s strict privacy framework, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and its strict interpretation of what constitutes personal data are major blockers for any data company in the EU. This is especially concerning for high-risk data companies, such as healthcare companies. While personalised medicine is on the rise in the US, European startups can only wish for such easy access to data at home. 

Another issue is the AI Act and its gradual implementation (along with many Codes of Practice). Over the past few years, many AI companies have delayed introducing new products to the European market, citing compliance concerns. 

The story is not over: the DMA stays at the forefront of the European regulatory framework, and there is a looming threat that a much-needed GDPR reform will stay cosmetic if the European policymakers are bullied into that by data privacy absolutists. Moreover, the incoming Digital Fairness Act threatens to diminish personalised advertising experience for consumers and businesses, reduce the availability of certain features on social media, and change the current business model for social media influencers.

#1 iPhone's Mirroring

Apple’s iPhone Mirroring, allowing you to control your iPhone from a Mac (e.g., working on your laptop while simultaneously scrolling social media on your monitor), remains unavailable in the EU due to Digital Markets Act gatekeeper compliance concerns, per Apple’s own comments.

#2 Apple AirPods: Live Translation

Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 will test on-device live translation (English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, with Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese coming next). In the EU, these live-translation features won’t launch soon, allegedly, due to the Digital Markets Act's interoperability requirements.

#3 Starlink Direct-to-Cell

Starlink's satellite texting, voice, and data straight to ordinary phones (no extra hardware) isn’t commercially available in any EU country yet.

Starlink’s D2C launch would require partnerships with local mobile operators and access to their spectrum. The European reception has been chilly: European telcos have threatened legal action over spectrum rules for D2C, arguing potential interference with terrestrial networks, and the EU is advancing its own IRIS² constellation for sovereignty.

In a protectionist telecom landscape, near-term, wide rollout looks unlikely, even as D2C’s value grows amid geopolitics and infrastructure risks (e.g., Baltic undersea cable vulnerabilities).

#4 Autonomous taxi services (Waymo)

In the United States, commercial autonomous taxi services (think: Waymo’s driverless ride-hailing) are already live in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco, with more cities coming.

In the European Union, there’s still no comparable public service, except for pilots and demos, such as Renault robobus “WeRide” trial in Barcelona, or Germany’s “KIRA” Level-4 passenger pilots.

Since August 2025, Germany has recently authorised Level-4 autonomous vehicle operation in heavily restricted areas, such as autonomous cabs on airport premises. Lyft with Baidu’s Apollo Go RT6 targets deployments in Germany and the United Kingdom from 2026, and Uber with Momenta (Chinese AI firm) announced their plans for AI-driven taxi tests in Munich in 2026.

Meanwhile, projects like SMARTAUTO aim to close the adoption gap across Europe, but focus on European-built solutions only.

Other products significantly delayed (or with fewer features) in the EU include:

#5 Threads

Meta’s social media app launched in the United States on 5 July 2023, and in the European Union on 14 December 2023 (five months later), likely due to privacy concerns. 

#6 Sora

OpenAI’s text-to-video AI model Sora, which turns text and images into coherent videos, launched in the United States in December 2024 and became accessible in Europe in late February 2025.

#7 Apple Intelligence

Apple’s generative AI assistant, Apple Intelligence, launched in the United States in October 2024 and in the European Union in March-April 2025.

#8 Google AI Overviews

Google Search feature that uses generative AI to summarise answers at the top of results launched in the United States on 14 May 2024, while rollout in the European Union began in late March 2025.

#9 Claude (Anthropic)

Anthropic’s AI assistant launched with Claude 2 on 11 July 2023, in the United States and the United Kingdom and became available across Europe on May 14, 2024.

This story was originally published on EU Tech Loop and has been published on Euronews as part of an agreement.