The Apple Watch blood oxygen battle hurts the company and its customers

It’s not often that upgrading to the latest model of an Apple product means sacrificing a key feature, but that is the case for anyone in the USA upgrading to the Apple Watch Series 10 from the S6 or later.

The reason is that, if you bought a Series 6, 7, 8, or 9 (before January 18), then it includes a blood oxygen measurement feature; if you buy the Series 10 or Ultra 2, you’ll lose that …

The reason is that Apple was found to have infringed patents owned by healthtech company Masimo.

A recap of the sorry story

Back in 2013, Apple reportedly contacted Masimo to discuss a potential collaboration between the two companies. Instead, claims Masimo, Apple used the meetings to identify staff it wanted to poach. Masimo later called the meetings a “targeted effort to obtain information and expertise.”

Apple did indeed hire a number of Masimo staff, including the company’s chief medical officer, ahead of the launch of the Apple Watch.

Masimo CEO Joe Kiano later expressed concern that Apple may have been trying to steal the company’s blood oxygen sensor technology. The company describes itself as “the inventors of modern pulse oximeters,” and its tech is used in many hospitals.

In 2020, the company sued Apple for stealing trade secrets and infringing 10 Masimo patents. The lawsuit asked for an injunction on the sale of the Apple Watch.

A compromise was reached, in which Apple agreed to remove the feature from new Watches sold in the US from January 18 of this year. It was not required to disable the feature in Watches already sold.

The appeals process continues, and it’s possible that Apple might eventually win, but so far that looks like an uphill battle.

This is hurting both Apple and its customers

The compromise at least meant that nobody who already owned an Apple Watch with the blood oxygen feature was impacted; they could continue to use it.

But it did mean that none of them could upgrade to a new watch without losing the feature, and that’s something which was highlighted in reviews of the Apple Watch Series 10. Wired, for example:

It’s really bad news that there is no blood oxygen sensing on the Series 10, and no word on when or if it will come back. This is ridiculous, as every single other fitness tracker on God’s green earth now has this feature. I may have never personally used this information, but we all bought pulse oximeters during the Covid-19 pandemic, and assuming I do get Covid again (once in five years, baby!), I imagine I will want to know what my oxygen saturation levels are.

That’s frankly embarrassing for Apple, and frustrating for its customers.

Apple should licence first, argue later

This issue could be resolved tomorrow by Apple licensing the tech from Masimo, while continuing to appeal the case. (And yes, I know Masimo has said it has no interest in doing so, but it would hardly be the first company to say this as a negotiating tactic.)

That would mean customers would be free to upgrade without losing functionality, and Apple wouldn’t have the gloss taken off its shiny new update by reviewers warning people of the perils of upgrading.

I get it. Clearly Apple thinks it has done nothing wrong, and the company is known to be uncompromising in such circumstances.

But I’m not calling on it to admit wrong-doing, merely to take a pragmatic decision to keep the tech available until the case is finally resolved. If Apple wins, then it can file a lawsuit for the return of the patent royalties.

Image: Apple