Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I'm now waiting for the comments "Apple should pull out of the US", from the same people that claim they should pull out of the EU whenever there's EU regulation to follow.
This comment isn’t logical, but I assume in order to throw some stuff against the wall, in the interest of stirring the pot, hyperbole reigns supreme.
 
There have been some really good Ultra 2 sales this last week. I guess that will stop for a while until this is resolved.
 
Why can't they just license the patent at this point? If they lost, just pay up? Apple can afford it and surely the cost would be less than the money from lost sales?
My guess is that it depends on what Apple really believes they stand on this. If they firmly believe they are in their right and Masimo is just doing a patent troll act , paying up to get rid of them will just encourage other patent trolls to keep banging at Apple's doors.
Obviously if they know they're wrong, they better pay up.
 
This is not going to impact Apple's sales one bit. Best Buy, Costco, and Target, and the carriers will still sell select units throughout the period. The sales halt will merely delay quite a few sales, but once this pause is lifted, people will just come back to buy them. No one with an iPhone will consider a Pixel Watch, a fit bit, or the others. Period. And in the end, Apple has a cash pile of $61 Billion and Masimo's Market Cap is $5.97 Billion, so it wouldn't shock me if apple just bought them out to put an end to this debacle.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SamRyouji
I’m surprised they haven’t settled this yet.
They must either 1, be banking on Biden stepping in to avoid almost any loss. Or the terms the other company wanted to settle were so unrealistic that somehow it makes more financial sense to stop selling from Apple direct completely until the next model. Wild, never heard of such a thing in Apple history, or any rumors about this happening leading up to this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: centauratlas
This is not going to impact Apple's sales one bit. Best Buy, Costco, and Target, and the carriers will still sell select units throughout the period. The sales halt will merely delay quite a few sales, but once this pause is lifted, people will just come back to buy them. No one with an iPhone will consider a Pixel Watch, a fit bit, or the others. Period. And in the end, Apple has a cash pile of $61 Billion and Masimo's Market Cap is $5.97 Billion, so it wouldn't shock me if apple just bought them out to put an end to this debacle.
I wish I had the ability to just up and pay $6,000,000,000 to make my problems go away as if I was buying another watch band on eBay, just like any other monday morning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ToyoCorollaGR
I'm now waiting for the comments "Apple should pull out of the US", from the same people that claim they should pull out of the EU whenever there's EU regulation to follow.

This comment isn’t logical, but I assume in order to throw some stuff against the wall, in the interest of stirring the pot, hyperbole reigns supreme.
Exactly!!!

The "minor" difference between government regulation vs private party litigation obviously went over MLVCs head.
 
Does anyone know how much Apple and Masimo have politically donated to the current administration?
Apple has assuredly donated plenty it’s in their best interest to do so, the question is if it’s worth burning all their political ammo to avoid a licensing fee on two models of watch.
 
They must either 1, be banking on Biden stepping in to avoid almost any loss. Or the terms the other company wanted to settle were so unrealistic that somehow it makes more financial sense to stop selling from Apple direct completely until the next model. Wild, never heard of such a thing in Apple history, or any rumors about this happening leading up to this.

Masimo is demanding co-ownership on Apple’s patents for their sensors as well as 1.8 billion, it’s pretty unrealistic.
 
This is what I don't understand, but maybe it is because I am a scientist and not an engineer. An SpO2 monitor simply bounces red light (and possibly some other wavelengths) off of tissue and measures the returning light. Since the more oxygen is bound to haemoglobin, the redder blood gets, it is a really simple measurement - even trivial. I have built many for research purposes in my lab. I suppose these patents could be about calibration, optimisation, miniaturisation, or signal processing (e.g., heart rate detection), but fundamentally it is just about bouncing red light off of blood and measuring the return signal. I hope this wasn't the Patent Office running amok handing out patents for ideas that are obvious.
Most likely that. The patent system is broken. Overly broad, obvious patents are granted. And there should be a tight timeline for patents holder to come up with a product using the patent before it expires.
 
It won't happen because of this, but I see A LOT of Fitbits being worn here at work (hospital) by iPhone users.
...
Except now the Google has gobbled up FitBit, you'll have get a Google account to save your data as of 2025. I think this might drive up AW sales, for many Apple users don't like Google and will switch away from FitBit. Indeed, I would have bought an AW long ago had the battery life been reasonable. I guess we'll have to wait and see about how this patent dispute plays out, but I was planing to buy an AW some time next year if Apple increased the battery life. I suppose now I should be prepared to look at alternatives (Garmin, COROS, etc.).
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: AeroEd and xpxp2002
I’m a lawyer who used to do patent litigation. IMO US patent law is so broken that it really should be torn down to the studs and redone from scratch. It was designed for a time and for inventions that bear no resemblance to what we have now.

Halting sales of an entire smartwatch over one largely irrelevant feature that’s been around for 3 years is an insane way to deal with a dispute over that feature.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.