Apple to sell some Apple Watch models without blood oxygen feature in the U.S. during lengthy appeal

The Blood Oxygen sensor on the back crystal of Apple Watch
Apple, opens new tab said on Wednesday it would remove a blood oxygen monitoring feature from two flagship Apple Watch models in the U.S. as the company appeals decisions over patents.
Blake Brittain and Stephen Nellis for Reuters:
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The legal fight could take a year to resolve, and analysts had expected Apple would strike the feature, which is marketed for fitness uses, rather than pull devices from sale in one of its biggest markets.
The company said Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models without the feature would go on sale on its website and stores starting at 6 a.m. Pacific Time (1400 GMT) on Thursday.
Apple shares closed 0.5% lower at $182.68 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Wednesday the company could no longer sell the models at the center of a the legal battle with medical technology company Masimo.
Existing Apple Watches are not affected by the orders, nor are devices sold outside the United States.
Series 9 and Ultra 2 models sold in the U.S. from Thursday will still have an app icon for the blood oxygen features. But when users tap those icons, they will informed the features are unavailable.

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MacDailyNews Take: So far, it’d be tough to imagine Apple doing a worse job of managing this situation. Sometimes, too often for our liking, it seems that the “C” in Apple’s C-Suite stands for “clowns.”
What never should’ve gotten anywhere close to this point continues rolling along like a driverless clown car. – MacDailyNews, January 17, 2024
Apple does, of course, need to rectify a situation that competent management would already have addressed well prior to any sales ban, as soon as possible. – MacDailyNews, December 21, 2023
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