European buyers can pre-order Apple’s latest smart speaker and streaming box, but the company’s new Siri AI features remain unavailable because of EU restrictions.
Apple has opened European pre-orders for the HomePod mini 2 and the new Apple TV 4K, but buyers in the bloc will not get the company’s new Siri AI features at launch. According to Apple’s German, French and Spanish online stores, the HomePod mini 2 costs €169 and will ship from 30 October, while the Apple TV 4K starts at €349 and arrives on 13 November. The same pricing and dates also appear on Apple’s stores in Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden, with the German site noting that local prices include 19 per cent VAT.
The omission of Siri AI is not just a temporary software gap. Apple says in the product footnotes that the assistant “will not be initially available in the EU in iOS or iPadOS”, which means the HomePod mini 2 and Apple TV 4K cannot meet the requirement for the owner’s iPhone or iPad to have Apple Intelligence enabled. Apple’s European store pages therefore omit any mention of Siri AI, while the US and UK listings promote the feature. The company has made the assistant available in English in several other markets through a future software update on the speaker, and at launch on the streaming box, but no EU country appears on either availability list.
Even without the AI layer, Apple is positioning both devices as smart home products as well as audio and video hardware. The HomePod mini 2 uses Apple’s S10 chip, supports 360-degree sound, stereo pairing and multiroom playback, and can be used as a smart home hub with temperature and humidity sensing, Sound Recognition and surround sound when linked with Apple TV 4K. The new Apple TV 4K is powered by an A19 chip that Apple says delivers up to 50 per cent faster CPU performance and up to twice the GPU performance of the previous generation. It also includes far-field microphones, home hub features, 4K Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos, plus the Siri Remote with Precision Finding.
Language support remains a practical limitation for some European buyers. Apple’s German footnote says hands-free Siri through the Apple TV 4K’s microphones depends on the primary tvOS language, and is supported only for a defined set of languages that includes English, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Norwegian, Chinese and Swedish. That means the feature is available in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden when the device is configured accordingly, but not in Spanish or Italian. Apple also says HDMI and USB-C cables are sold separately, while launch promotions in Germany include three months of Apple Music with the HomePod mini 2 and three months of Apple TV with the set-top box for eligible subscribers.
The broader picture is that Apple is treating the EU differently from other markets on its newest AI-driven products. The company has already said its HomeView display will not go on sale in the European Union because Siri AI is unavailable there in iOS, and it says it is working with EU regulators on a path forward. For now, the HomePod mini 2 and Apple TV 4K can still serve as traditional smart home and entertainment hubs in Europe, but the headline AI features remain out of reach.
Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes only. Readers are advised to exercise their own judgement, conduct due diligence, or consult a qualified expert before acting on any information provided.
