2024-09-29 12:19:25
Apple has stopped selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States. We are not talking about discontinued products, but rather two of the star elements of the Cupertino company’s catalog. What happened then? The International Trade Commission (ITC) of the North American country has prohibited the sale and import of the aforementioned smart watches.
The agency’s decision comes amid a case of alleged patent infringement brought about by medical device manufacturer Masimo. At the center of the scene is the Blood Oxygen technology that would have been improperly implemented in some products of the firm led by Tim Cook. Despite all this, Apple has tried to do everything possible to circumvent the ban, although it has not succeeded.
A ban that explodes at Christmas time
It is no secret that the Christmas season is one of the most important commercially speaking times for a large number of firms. However, Apple stopped sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 on its website on December 21 and removed both devices from stores. December 24 in the United Statesshortly before the ITC measure came into force.
But all of this has happened while Apple was trying (and still trying) to address the problem with different strategies. Bloomberg notes that the company’s engineers were working around the clock to make software changes, although Masimo insists that “the hardware has to change” and that any system-level alterations will be insufficient to solve the problem.
Apple also tried to delay the ban through a motion, but this was rejected on Wednesday of last week. Despite this defeat, Joe Biden’s administration He had the opportunity to overturn the ITC ruling until December 24 (in 2013 Barack Obama vetoed a ruling banning some iPhones and iPads in a legal battle against Samsung), but he decided not to intervene and stay out of the matter.
Apple’s reaction has been to appeal the ITC ruling. In the legal document presented today, the technology company says that the ban can cause “irreparable damage” if it is maintained throughout the judicial process. Apple does not give figures, but analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities estimates that banning smart watches during the holiday season alone could cost Apple between $300 and $400 million.
Fuente: XAKATA