At the beginning of the past year, following a lengthy legal battle in court, Apple was ordered to stop selling Apple Watches with blood oxygen monitors in the United States. This was a result of a ruling by the ITC regarding patent infringement by Masimo.
Apple temporarily addressed the issue by disabling the feature on Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra. When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 10, their new flagship smartwatch for the year, how did they handle this feature?
Product details for the Apple Watch Series 10 still specify in the United States that it does not have the capability to measure blood oxygen levels, while product information in other countries states that it does have this feature. It remains unclear whether Apple made a hardware-level decision or utilized software shutdown similar to previous Apple Watch models. This information may become clearer once the Apple Watch Series 10 is delivered in the US and dismantled for inspection.
Source: TechCrunch
Comparing product details between Thailand and the United States.
TLDR: Apple faced a sales ban on Apple Watches with blood oxygen monitors in the US due to a patent infringement ruling, prompting temporary fixes for existing models while leaving questions on how the feature will be addressed on the Apple Watch Series 10.
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