Apple Watch Series 9 & Ultra 2 Sales Halted?

Apple is now one of the largest watch manufacturers in the world. In 2022, they sold over 50M units of Apple Watches. Assuming the average price of these watches is $500, that's $25B in sales (that's a significant chunk of money for Apple). The company responsible for this halt is Masimo. A health tech company that I've never heard of before. But nevertheless, they've been around for 30 years and are a publicly traded company (in other words, a pretty big company).

So, what happened between them? Masimo accused Apple of stealing their blood oxygen feature technology.

But how could Apple have 'stolen technology'? According to Masimo's CEO, Apple reached out to them in 2013. Masimo then believed it was to buy the entire company. Afterward, Apple hired around 20 engineers from Masimo. The story of larger companies approaching smaller companies to buy them, learning all their secrets, and copying their technology is a not-so-uncommon theme in business.

But did that really happen here? I don't know. Masimo definitely thinks so, which resulted in them taking this issue to court. The International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Masimo. This means that Apple must halt sales of certain Apple Watches until they've been declared void of accusations.

This made me wonder why Apple can't prevent users from using this disputed feature for now and unlock it if and whenever they're cleared of all accusations? It seems like Apple might be thinking the same. But unfortunately for Apple, the filings against Apple dispute the hardware, too.

Apple strongly disagrees with these accusations. Masimo's CEO says he's open to private negotiations with Apple, but Apple has yet to contact him. Let's see what happens next.