If you didn’t get AppleCare+ for your Apple Watch, Apple won’t fix it anymore

On Thursday afternoon, there was a wierd sight on Apple.com–the Apple Watch Collection 9, which arrived in September, was listed as “At present Unavailable” for buy. In fantastic print on the backside of the tech specs was the explanation: “Following December 24, 2023, Apple now not sells Apple Watch items in the USA with the flexibility to measure blood oxygen.”

In an nearly unbelievable state of affairs, Apple is now not permitted to promote the Apple Watch Collection 9 and Extremely 2 within the U.S. because of a dispute over its blood-oxygen sensor. A court docket ruling discovered that Apple infringed on two of Masimo’s patents for measuring blood oxygen, and since these two watches include pulse oximeter sensors, they’ll now not be offered on-line by Apple. That ban will prolong to its retail shops and third-party sellers and shipments to Amazon and Finest Purchase after Christmas.

Apple

In accordance with Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the lack to promote Apple Watches with blood-oxygen sensors extends to the flexibility to repair any Apple Watch with a blood-oxygen sensor. He studies that Apple has advised workers that “it will possibly’t substitute out-of-warranty Collection 6 and newer” for any cause.

It’s not clear what the following steps are or how lengthy the ban will final. After a failed attraction, Apple was presumably hoping for President Biden to overturn the ban, however that hasn’t occurred. Software program engineers at Apple are reportedly “racing” to determine the way to proceed promoting the Apple Watch Collection 9 with the present sensor, however Masimo doesn’t suppose such an answer is feasible with out disabling the sensor altogether.