- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
Apple is now banned from selling its latest Apple Watches in the US::Apple can no longer sell the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Watch Series 9 in the US. The International Trade Commission issued an import ban on the devices that took effect on December 26th, 2023.
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Ooh gotta love when they get a taste of their own poison. They’ve blocked import of so many devices resembling theirs or third party made spare parts to control the market and now it’s coming around to bite them in the ass.
Except now it’s because of a patent dispute instead of “because I said so!”
The fact that they seem to really have expected a Biden “pardon” is absolutely hilarious to me.
Really wonder what exactly Apple is planning/trying to do here. They have more than enough money to settle with Masimo - IMO it makes the most sense for them to just settle an amount for the existing watches, and redesign a new oxygen sensor module for the US market.
Kind of silly for them to expect some kind of special treatment ripping off another company’s tech, when they themselves are hyper protective over copycats ripping them off
Maybe the sales figures were less than expected and will use this as an excuse to the board.
Well, if I was on the board or a shareholder, I would be much more pissed about patent infringment that should have been easy to prevent and hints at incompetence over lower than expected sales which is just hard to predict.
If you were an invester or board member, you wouldn’t care about the patent infringement - Apple has historically done this and you wouldn’t invest in the first place if you weren’t okay with it. This one’s just getting more eyeballs and actual repurcussions but they’ve paid off and bought out multiple companies over stuff like this.
If I were an investor I would be much more lenient with the excuse that the market is saturated than the excuse that we’re too incompetent to even maintain a presence in the market.
They also have more than enough money to drain Masimo by dragging them through legal proceedings, so Apple can just swoop in and buy them out.
I’m not sure how big Masimo is, but they probably have reasonably deep pockets too considering they manufacture and sell a ton of hospital equipment.
If Apple wanted to buy out Masimo it certainly wouldn’t be cheap, and would probably upset their shareholders, but they do have the money
But there’s no reason for Apple to do that it would have been cheaper for them to just pay for the license. I think they didn’t think they’d get called out on it, and now they don’t know what to do.
Maybe the sales figures were less than expected and will use this as an excuse to the board.
The ban only affects Apple stores in the US. That means customers can still get their hands on a Watch Series 9 or Watch Ultra 2 at Best Buy, Target, and other retailers while supplies last. Apple will also continue selling the Watch SE, as it doesn’t come with a blood oxygen sensor.
That seems a bit lax.
Well… That’s actually probably fair as stated.
BestBuy etc don’t sell Apple’s products on commission, they bought them from Apple for a wholesale price, they’ve got them in a warehouse and on shelves right now on their dime, and the only way they make that money back is by selling them.
And the only way Apple makes money from a product being sold at Best Buy is that Best Buy will likely buy more stock to replace the stuff they sold, and they’ll buy that from Apple.
So if it was banned everywhere it would be unfair to the retailers that already paid Apple for a product they now can’t recoup, and it wouldn’t impact Apple at all because they already made their money from Best Buy.
This way the retailers can get their money back, but can’t get any more, which means only Apple is impacted.
The only other way that’s semi-fair (but would be extreme) would be for Apple to be forced to do a recall or something and reimburse all the retailers the money they had already spent. Doable, and definitely more of a punishment for Apple, but a lot of extra work for everyone if the outcome of this is that Apple settles and then everyone can just go back to ordering more again.
What would be interesting to see would be to force apple to buy back the product at 100% the value they sold it for
The key phrase is “while supplies last”. They can’t import more, so third party resellers can only get rid of what they already have.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
A statement (via CNBC) from the Office of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the agency “decided not to reverse the ITC’s [International Trade Commission] determination” after “careful consideration.”
The ITC issued the ban after finding that Apple infringed on blood oxygen saturation technology patented by a company called Masimo.
It also ordered Apple to stop selling any previously-imported devices with the infringed-upon tech.
While Apple attempted to block the decision while awaiting an appeal, the ITC denied Apple’s request, and the other chance of intervention was a veto from President Joe Biden, which didn’t happen.
Apple will also continue selling the Watch SE, as it doesn’t come with a blood oxygen sensor.
But both of those methods might not be enough to satisfy the ITC, which is why Apple could always choose to settle with Masimo instead.
The original article contains 259 words, the summary contains 138 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Struck by the very thing they love to do.
