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Comment by mrcwinn | Hacker News Reader

(I couldn't reply down another level.)

>How HN can support monopolization of markets and killing of [sic] competition is beyond me.

That suggests HN is a monoculture of some sort of united front. It is not. Diversity of opinion is best for this community (and all communities).

And, sorry, what competition was killed off here? I, as the consumer, was never considering Massimo for my blood oxygen measurement needs. I bought an Apple Watch and just want it to be as feature-full as possible. So does Apple.

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Why were you never considering them for your blood oxygen measurement needs?

Not the OP but as someone in the same boat.

I wasn’t going to buy a device just for blood monitoring. What they produced is valuable to me as a feature of a product but not as a product in of itself

Yea, so if Apple didn’t copy the other company’s work, they’d have been forced to buy devices from or license the other company’s work. So instead of your money for the blood oxygen sensor going to that company, it went to Apple.

I bought a cheap pulse oximeter during the pandemic and what I learned is that when I’m feeling light-headed, blood oxygen is low. So I decided that my body’s built-in blood oximeter is probably good enough most of the time.

It’s sort of like having your watch tell you whether you slept well or not. Didn’t you already know? If you think you slept well and your watch disagrees, are you going to trust its opinion over your own?

Even people with sleep apnea don't know they are waking up multiple times an hour all night. You really have no clue how you're sleeping until you put it to the test.

Also, I don't think most people are in a position where they feel like they have amazing sleep every night. Yeah, maybe those people have nothing to gain from gadgets kind of like a person at ideal weight doesn't gain anything from counting calories: but what about the rest of us?

My wrist device was critical in helping me realize how few hours I was sleeping despite being in bed with my eyes closed for 8 hours.

And what did you do with that information?

There are lots of ways it can help. Finding out you wake up an abnormal amount of times could be a sign of sleep apnea or something else. One could take that information and get a sleep study.

These apps can detect that you are moving around a lot and also detect that you are snoring (another sign of sleep apnea).

Even if you know that you snore without using a sleeping app, that doesn't really give you a picture of how bad it could be. I apparently stop breathing and sometimes start choking in my sleep.

Now that I have a diagnosis of sleep apnea sleep apps are still really helpful. If I'm still snoring, it means I probably need to adjust the pressure on my CPAP machine. If the app for my CPAP machine tells me that I'm having a lot of episodes over the course of the night, I might need to adjust the pressure or the fit of the mask.

sleep apps have probably literally saved lives.

Lots.

1. The heart rate line graph during my sleep made me realize just how bad exercise within 6 hours of bed is. My resting heart rate is 43bpm, yet if I exercise, I'll try to sleep at 60bpm that slowly decreases to 45bpm over 4-6 hours. And it always coincides with worse sleep.

2. I realized how often my HR jumps during sleep. Turns out I have a deviated septum that got bad enough in my 30s to regularly block breathing. I thought I had sleep apnea that would require a CPAP but it turns out I just need nasal strips. No more problems.

3. If you see you have bad sleep, you can now ask the question "how do I improve my sleep?" If you don't know you have bad sleep because you think you're sleeping 8 hours, then you don't realize you have levers to pull.

So we should allow apple to have monopoly power in every industry because otherwise it'd be annoying to buy separate devices.

… who made that claim?

Where did anyone claim that Apple ought to have a monopoly on blood oxygen measurement in a wearable electronic device, let alone "have monopoly power in every industry"?

>monopoly on blood oxygen measurement in a wearable electronic device

And I know this isn't your argument, but that's a VERY narrow market for the purposes of a US inquiry into monopolies. Like, the normal market definition fights are about whether you should be considering "premium smartphones" or "smartphones" as a whole. Or all of the grocery stores in a given region, and whether that should include convenience stores that also sell groceries.

I'd be hard pressed to imagine a court really contemplating an argument that a company has a monopoly in a very small slice of a market. It would be like saying that Rolex has a monopoly in luxury sport watches with headquarters in Geneva.

The definition of a monopoly is that it can engage in monopolistic practices. Poaching IP to destroy a small company is very much a monopolistic practice, and has a chilling effect on the rest of the market.

Of course in Apple's case this Masimo story is not the only monopolistic practice.

The correct analogy would be a watch market dominated by Casio and Swatch with no independent smaller brands.

Because every smaller brand that becomes somewhat successful is bought out by the Big Two. Or never gets that far because new IP somehow ends up being the sole property of the Big Two through various other means.

(Technically an oligopoly, but still maintained by monopolistic lock-ins and actions.)

> Poaching IP

I disagree with this framing where offering more money to employees is described with the same words used to describe stealing property

> smaller company

I mean, ok yea that’s technically true, but Masimo makes billions a year in revenue. They are not a smol bean company

Because why would I want to destroy the planet by purchasing an additional new watch for each single feature that I wanted to leverage? This seems hugely damaging to the environment just to enrich the lives of < 100 people.

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