Apple to Remove Blood Oxygen Sensor from Watch to Avoid U.S. Ban, Rival Says

> The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which is responsible for enforcing import bans, on Friday approved technical changes to the watches, including the removal of the blood-oxygen sensor, according to a Masimo filing on Monday.

Seems unlikely that Masimo would lie about this, given how easily verifiable it will soon become.

Though of course this could just be more jockeying on Apple's part — they could be doing this to show that they are willing to cut the feature, in order to extract a more favorable licensing agreement with Masimo.

My real question is: will Apple reduce the price of these smurfed watches, and if so, by how much? My guess is little if at all, both for complexity reasons, and because it would bolster their argument that this feature is not worth much to consumers (which is relevant during the damages phase of a trial, or in licensing talks).

There are a few limited use cases for blood oxygen sensors on wristwatches. Detecting or monitoring medical conditions that impact breathing or oxygen absorption such as COPD, sleep apnea, or COVID-19. Detecting hypoxia during high altitude activities such as mountaineering or aviation (in unpressurized aircraft).

For healthy users near sea level, blood oxygen sensors are mostly useless. Your blood oxygen saturation will always be close to 100%. I have one on a Garmin smartwatch but disabled it to save battery life because the data was useless.

This is just a general comment on using blood oxygen sensors. I am not taking a position on the legal aspects of this case or Apple's removal of product functionality.

I’ve used the blood oxygen sensor during bouts with Covid, while sleeping, and while sitting at a computer (“email apnea”). It’s an important part of the reason I own it.

If Apple removes this sensor from my ultra 2, I hope I can get my money back.