Apple is preparing a more permanent fix for the ITC ruling that ended up temporarily blocking US sales of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Series 9 models (both of which are now back on sale — though again, possibly temporarily). The proposed solution, revealed in a brief legal filing (via 9 to 5 Mac) from lawyers representing Apple’s opposition in the dispute, Masimo includes a complete software disablement of pulse oximetry functions in future models of the devices — a change that will frankly have zero impact on anyone who ends up buying one of them in the future .
Note: The Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Series 9 continue to be offered for sale with pulse oximeter functionality included, and will continue to do so until at least the US Court of Appeals rules on Apple’s filing of a stay petition covering the entire appeal period – and could apply thereafter if Apple wins the appeal. This proposed software fix appears to be something that is being discussed in case none of this goes Apple’s way.
Even if you have an Apple Watch model that includes the pulse oximeter feature, which was introduced way back in 2020, you’d be forgiven for not knowing it was there. The feature ostensibly provides a reading of your blood oxygen levels, though anyone who’s had much experience with Apple’s sensor implementation knows it’s nowhere near accurate, and it’s not something you can really use to glean any really useful information about your health.
Pulse oximetry, including consumer blood oxygen monitors (usually the ones that clip on to the end of your finger, which you may have encountered in a pharmacy or medical setting) have been used for a long time and can indeed provide vital, even life-saving information about the level of oxygen in your blood. If it drops dangerously low, that’s a good sign that something is wrong and you should seek immediate help. Blood oxygen levels arguably began their moment in the public consciousness as a key indicator of when COVID cases have gone from bad to worse, requiring emergency medical intervention.
To be fair to Apple, it has never marketed the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensing capabilities as being designed for any “medical” use, and instead sees it strictly as one of the Apple Watch’s many “wellness” features. And it’s also entirely plausible that by monitoring your metrics over time for upward or downward trends, you could combine that information with other signals of well-being to inform yourself of some change in your well-being that’s negatively affecting you. But overall, the Apple Watch’s pulse oximetry feature is a gilding of the lily that’s certainly not worth suffering through a US-wide ban on device sales or even a modest patent licensing deal with Masimo.
Yes, users will have one less graph in their Health app dashboards, but it’s one that wasn’t useful in isolation anyway — especially now that the pandemic-fueled fascination with blood oxygen levels has mostly died down. Apple, unlike Samsung, also isn’t shy about bringing back features when they prove unpopular with users or questionably useful, so this isn’t even that unusual – except that Masimo forced its hand, of course.
