Apple is Working on Software Workaround Ahead of US Apple Watch Ban

Apple is reportedly working on an emergency software workaround to address the upcoming ban of its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the US later this week. Yesterday, the company announced that it had to pause sales of the two Watch models in the US due to a patent dispute with medical technology Masimo related to Apple Watch models containing the Blood Oxygen feature.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple engineers are “racing to make changes to algorithms on the device that measure a user’s blood oxygen level” to address accusations from Masimo. “They’re adjusting how the technology determines oxygen saturation and presents the data to customers” according to people familiar with the matter.

While Apple seems to believe that a software fix will be enough to end the US ban, Bloomberg reports that this process could take time. And ultimately, it may not be enough to bring back the two Apple Watch models to the US market. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Masimo claimed that “the hardware needs to change.”

As of today, Apple is set to pause sales of its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 on its online store on December 21. The company’s retail stores will follow on December 24. However, Apple will be able to continue selling cheaper Apple Watch SE in its stores.

Other retail stores will be able to continue selling the two Watch models as the Internal Trade Commission (ITC) ban only applies to Apple’s own sales channels. The rest of the world will also be unaffected by this legal dispute. But at the end of the day, this US Apple Watch ban is really bad news for the company during the very lucrative Christmas period.