If your gift list for your family, friends, or yourself includes an Apple Watch, here's what you need to know as the company may stop selling it.
This week, Apple announced that it will halt sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, the latest versions of its popular smartwatch.
The measure will begin to be applied differently: from December 21 in online sales at the Apple Store and from December 24 in its physical stores.
The reason is that the US International Trade Commission determined that Apple Inc. infringed on two patents of Masimo Corp, a Malaysian manufacturer of medical devices.
As of December 26, sales through Apple's direct channels will no longer be allowed.
However, other retailers, such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Target, as well as resellers on e-commerce sites such as Amazon, will still be able to sell the smartwatches.
What is not clear at the moment is whether the sale by independent retailers will be only while supplies last or whether they will be able to restock Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 units.
Masimo sued Apple before the ITC accusing the tech giant of infringing its patents on a pulse oximeter, specifically the use of light by a device worn on the wrist to measure oxygen levels in the blood, and the use of a pulse oximeter in the wrist to measure oxygen levels in the blood.
The Malaysian company accused Apple of introducing such a function in its smartwatches since 2020, when it introduced its Apple Watch Series 6.
The Latin Times independently performed queries on Apple's US online store on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 without seeing a warning or customer advisory about an imminent ban on these products.
Race against time
At the moment, Apple is racing against time to make changes to the software and operating system in its smartwatches.
According to media reports, engineers are working to change algorithms and adjusting the technology they ise to measure oxygen saturation without infringing on Masimo's patents.
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