Apple Watch Series 10 takes one step forward and two back in health tracking
Apple is gearing up to unveil its latest lineup of products during tomorrow's "It's Glowtime" event, including the highly anticipated iPhone 16 series. Alongside the smartphones, the tech giant is expected to introduce the Apple Watch Series 10, featuring a significant upgrade to its health and fitness capabilities.
One of the most notable additions to the Series 10 is the long-awaited sleep apnea detection feature. Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder characterized by frequent pauses in breathing during sleep. These pauses can lead to disrupted sleep, daytime fatigue, and increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and other health problems. The Apple Watch Series 10's sleep apnea detection feature will monitor users' sleep patterns to identify potential signs of the condition, encouraging them to consult with a healthcare professional for further evaluation.
Additionally, the Series 10 will be missing another health-focused feature that was once available: blood oxygen sensing. Following a legal dispute with Masimo, Apple was forced to remove this functionality from its wearables. The company's CEO Tim Cook has implied that there are no plans to license Masimo's patents, so blood oxygen sensing will likely remain absent from upcoming Apple Watch models for the foreseeable future.
Beyond health features, the Apple Watch Series 10 is rumored to receive a visual refresh, with larger size options and a thinner design. Additionally, Apple is expected to introduce a new Apple Watch Ultra model and an updated Apple Watch SE.
While sleep apnea detection is a major step forward, users may need to wait a bit longer for another highly anticipated health feature: hypertension detection. Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a chronic condition that can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney damage, and other serious health problems. Despite Apple's previous ambitions to include this capability in the Series 10, it seems that development has been delayed and will be pushed back to a future release.
Additionally, the Series 10 will be missing another health-focused feature that was once available: blood oxygen sensing. Following a legal dispute with Masimo, Apple was forced to remove this functionality from its wearables. The company's CEO Tim Cook has implied that there are no plans to license Masimo's patents, so blood oxygen sensing will likely remain absent from upcoming Apple Watch models for the foreseeable future.
Apple is struggling to maintain its forward momentum (hot take)
It is not exactly the best of looks when a tech conglomerate such as Apple introduced new features, only to say their arrival will be at a later date. We already discussed how the iPhone 16 will be one big "it's coming later" sell, and now the delayed introduction of hypertension detection only further solidifies that statement.
Not to mention that arguably the hook for this Apple Watch generation, sleep apnea detection, won't be available at launch. So, in other words, all users have to look forward to is the slightly altered design.
But what truly makes Apple look bad is that blood oxygen sensing, a big feature it used to offer with its wrist wearables and one that was a big selling point for the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020, is suddenly no longer an available tool.
With all of this in mind, it almost looks as if things are slowly starting to crumble from the inside out at Apple, as the competition pulls forward and the Cupertino-based company struggles to keep up.
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