Hold the Phone! Australians will have to wait for Apple Intelligence as the US gets it first

In the fast paced world of Apple keynotes there’s lots of information, sometimes explained in great detail, sometimes teased. During this week’s WWDC Keynote Apple explained a lot of features and spent a fair amount of time on “Apple Intelligence” their move into a more consumer facing AI play. The problem is, we missed the devil that lay in the detail and it turns out Aussies will have to wait in line for their share of Apple’s increased smarts.

To be fair, it was hidden in plain sight – under the heading “Availability” in the Apple press release – but it didn’t occur to me until I kept hearing the term “US-English” in conversations about this groundbreaking new feature.

And that’s exactly where the restriction sits.

“Apple Intelligence is free for users, and will be available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this spring in U.S. English. Some features, software platforms, and additional languages will come over the course of the next year. Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to U.S. English.”

Now, you can argue that anyone can change their device language, It’s easy to do, anyone keen enough to play with developer and public beta versions of the software will likely give it a go. But most Aussies won’t, and if you do choose to change your language be prepared for your spell checks and grammar to go out the window.

The bottom line is, the US are getting Apple Intelligence first, we’ll have to wait.

It’s unlikely that we’ll have to wait 12 months, but it could well be several months if not stretching into 2025. Apple’s move into “AI” will require them to monitor the impact of the new services and software on their own systems, including their Private Cloud Connect system which is a cloud based set of extra oomph for your phone when doing AI. Once they know in the real world how that pans out, they can perhaps slowly scale globally.

Hard core early adopters won’t be stressed about this, but – your mum, dad and less nerdy mates will not be getting the benefit of Email Summaries in the inbox, or writing assistance any time soon folks.