Apple’s ongoing patent dispute with health company Masimo over the blood oxygen feature in the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, the company’s best Apple Watch models, has thrown up another potential wrinkle for users who already own either device.
In mid-January, Apple was forced to disable the blood oxygen monitoring feature in both of its flagship Apple Watch models after a court denied Apple’s request to halt a ban on sales and imports of the offending models, issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Apple’s website now notes that “Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 no longer include the Blood Oxygen feature,” meaning any new models bought will be missing the vital health feature. Now, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the disruption caused could also extend to existing customers who break their Apple Watch models and need a replacement through AppleCare.
Apple Watch ban to impact AppleCare customers
When asked if replacement/new hardware issued through AppleCare would still have the blood oxygen feature, Gurman said the answer “answer is a definite maybe.” According to the insider, a recent memo issued to AppleCare representatives “says that if you need a replacement for your Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2, the model may lack the blood oxygen feature.”
According to Gurman, customers will only find out whether they were lucky or not if they need their watch replaced, indicating it’s very much random. He recommends waiting until the patent dispute is resolved to be sure, but court proceedings mean that could take a year or more. It seems that Apple may have some existing inventory of replacement Apple Watch models for both the Series 9 and Ultra 2, as well as new inventory that has been modified to remove the blood oxygen feature. Therefore, whether or not you lose the feature due to an AppleCare swap could come down to your location, which Apple Store you use, or even the time of day you go into a store for your appointment.
At the end of 2023, the initial ban also impacted customers of older models including the Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra, with Apple forced to halt out-of-warranty repairs and replacements on those devices too.
