by The blood oxygen feature on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will no longer be available in the US, the company has announced. Apple has turned off the pulse oximetry feature on its most recent smartwatches to avoid a potential US ban on the devices, which violates patents owned by the medical technology company Masimo. Therefore, users who buy these two models in the US won’t be able to check their levels of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2).
In light of the ongoing legal battle between the two companies, Masimo CEO Joe Kiani told Bloomberg that Apple had not contacted the medical technology company to negotiate a settlement. The International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in October that Apple violated Masimo’s patents pertaining to pulse oximetry, a feature that initially unveiled with the Apple Watch Series 6. Apple has since appealed this decision.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided earlier this week that Apple was not allowed to offer the blood oxygen feature on both models, but they also declined to lift the import ban while the case was pending. Anticipating the ban, Apple has turned off the blood oxygen sensor on its US-sold Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models.
This implies that while the blood oxygen sensor will still be included in the box of both US-made smartwatches, its functionality will be limited. Disabling the feature through the Watch app is another option. Apple has also removed the blood oxygen feature from its feature comparison charts for various models and updated its product pages for the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 in the US to notify customers that it isn’t available on those models.
It crucial to remember that the blood oxygen feature limitations only apply to US consumers; this means that the feature will function on models that are sold in other nations, such as India. Since Apple has only disabled the hardware on these models, the iPhone make should be able to reactivate the functionality if Apple and Masimo are able to settle their patent dispute in the future.
