If you haven’t heard, Apple is halting the sales of some of its Apple Watch Series following a ruling by the International Trade Commission as mentioned in a statement issued by the company. This results from a patent infringement battle over these watches’ blood oxygen sensors.
The patent battle has been going on between Apple and Masimo for months and Masimo claims that Apple stole this medical technology from its own products. While Apple is still bent on fighting the ruling, unfortunately, they have to stop the sales of gadgets with the feature.
This post will share details about the ongoing battle, what watch series are affected, how it affects you and how you can still buy Apple Watches amid all these issues.
What are the Details of the Apple Watch Sales Halt?
From December 21st, 2023, Apple will stop selling the Series 9 and Ultra 2 on its website in the US and from December 24th, it will also be unavailable in retail stores across the United States.
So if you’ve been thinking about purchasing an Apple Watch from any Apple store(both online and offline) in the US, you can either wait until the battle dies down or explore alternative options available.
Fortunately, this issue only affects the United States which means, the affected models will still be available in other countries like the United Kingdom.
Will this Patent Affect other Apple Products?
Seeing as the Series 9 and Ultra 2 are the only Apple Watches with blood oxygen sensors, they are the only wearables affected at this time. So this means, it doesn’t affect any other Apple product including wearables, home accessories and gadgets.
You also don’t have to worry if you’ve previously bought any of the affected models in the United States. Your Apple Watch will not be recalled or develop any unforeseen issues along the way.
Where Can You Buy Apple Watches?
If you still want to purchase an Apple Watch for a holiday gift this year or next, we recommend comparing the models first to get a better alternative. Thereafter, you can explore getting one from Apple stores in other countries, Amazon, or verified third-party sites like eBay.
What This Means for Apple
For starters, the wearables account for 10% of its annual sales last year and this halt will put a significant dent in the company’s revenue from the United States. It also doesn’t help that Apple recently lost a patent dispute with Alivecor over ECGs on its Watches. Can the company expect to face more intellectual property challenges over its wearables in the next year?
