A legal dispute over patents pertaining to the technology underlying the feature has prompted Apple to decide to remove a blood oxygen monitoring feature from two of its top Apple Watch models in the United States.
It might take a year to fix the feature, which is touted for fitness purposes. Analysts had predicted that Apple will implement the function instead of pulling the devices out of one of its largest regions.
The firm announced that on Thursday, starting at 6 a.m. Pacific Time, Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 devices without the feature would be available for purchase on its website and in-store.
Following the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s decision on Wednesday that the corporation may no longer sell the models at the center, Apple shares finished 0.5% lower at $182.68.
As per Counterpoint Research, approximately 25% of the global smartwatch industry is made up of Apple Watches. In December, Masimo was able to obtain an order from the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop importing these watches.
The founder and chief executive of Masimo, Joe Kiani, released a statement saying that the court’s decision on Wednesday “affirms that even the largest and most powerful companies must respect the intellectual rights of American inventors and must deal with the consequences when they are caught infringing others’ patents.”
According to Reuters, Apple declared that it “strongly disagreed” with the ITC’s ruling and the ensuing orders, and that they ought to be overturned.
The orders have no bearing on Apple Watches that are already in circulation or that are marketed outside of the US.
The blood oxygen features on Series 9 and Ultra 2 models sold in the US starting on Thursday will continue to be represented by an app icon. However, users will be notified that certain capabilities are not available when they tap those icons.
Instead of discontinuing sales of the wearables, Ben Bajarin, CEO of the research firm Creative Strategies, had anticipated that Apple will disable the blood oxygen functions on its Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watch models in the US.
Despite having lower sales than its flagship iPhone, Apple’s watches accounted for 42% of its total income from North America in fiscal 2023, accounting for $39.84 billion of its total sales of $383.29 billion.
