Apple to halt US sales of Series 9, Ultra 2 smartwatches over patent dispute
The move comes after an order in October from the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that could bar Apple from importing its Apple Watches after finding the devices violate medical technology company Masimo's patent rights.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIIT DelhiIITD Certificate Programme in Data Science & Machine LearningVisitMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Advanced Data Science For ManagersVisit The decision is under review by President Joe Biden until December 25, but Apple said it is taking steps to comply should the ruling stand. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the part of the Biden administration handling the case, said that Ambassador Katherine Tai «is carefully considering all factors in this case.»
If not vetoed, the ban would go into effect on December 26.
The company said it would pause sales of the watches from its website starting on December 21 and from Apple retail locations after December 24. Other models that do not contain the blood oxygen sensor, like Apple's lower-priced Apple Watch SE model, are unaffected by the dispute.
Ryan Reith, program vice president for research firm IDC's mobile device tracking efforts, said that US holiday sales of Apple Watches will not suffer and that the full impact of the ruling, if it stands, will come in January and February, typically some of Apple's slowest sales months in the US
«Apple has plenty of inventory of Watch 8 and SE so they will have products available during that time,» Reith said. «The bigger implication is around whether or not Apple can use the blood oxygen sensor technology that is in question on future devices, or if they'll have to
