Apple could avoid US Apple Watch ban with software update
Wesley HilliardA software update could prevent an Apple Watch ban
While Apple waits for President Biden's administration to make a decision about the ITC's Apple Watch ban, the company is working on a software update that may help avoid stopping sales for now.
Masimo began a lawsuit against Apple in 2020 alleging the Apple Watch pulse oximeter violated multiple patents held by the company. The case was presented to the US International Trade Commission in 2021 and resulted in a recommendation for an import ban.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is working on multiple fronts to avoid a ban, one of which involves a last-minute software update to circumvent the patents in question. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Series 9 will no longer be available from Apple's online store on December 21, followed by a complete cease of sales on December 25, unless the Biden administration vetos the ITC's decision before then.
Masimo argues that the patent violations could only be resolved with hardware alterations in a future Apple Watch model. Existing Apple Watch Series 6 and later models would need to be removed from sale, minus the Apple Watch SE.
However, Apple believes a software update could satisfy US Customs. The report calls it a "high-stakes engineering effort unlike any Apple has undertaken before."
Apple will have to move quickly to stop its flagship wearables from being removed from the US market. The critical portion of the holiday shopping season is over, so impacts from the ban won't be visible until fiscal Q2 earnings.
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
Charles Martin
14 Comments
Well I guess I’m not updating my watch. It shouldn’t affect me in Canada as the case is in the US. I hope Apple makes it a US only update.
The US Patent system is totally screwed up and needs to be reformed. The ITC should have waited on the decisions by the courts and not gotten involved in this dispute.
A software update would be a disaster. Consider the choices: 1) Disable blood oxygen sensing on new models of Apple Watch sold after TBD date, in which case newly purchased watches are less capable than identical models previously sold. (How would Apple even do this? An update that only affected certain serial numbers?) 2) Disable blood oxygen sensors on all models of Apple Watch ever sold with this feature. Then Apple would have millions of watch owners refusing to update the software, in addition to being pissed off about the whole situation. What both these options have in common is this: unhappy Watch owners, and creating unhappiness among customers where none currently exists is a bad strategy for any company.
The path of least resistance and probably least expense for Apple will be to pay off Masimo through 2028 when the patent expires. While I don't know all of the insider details of this case, what I've read leads me to believe that Apple is at fault here. When Goliath goes into a David-sized company that has technology it desires, then refuses to even discuss licensing said technology while poaching all the top talent from the small company, it's a really bad look.