Masimo CEO Kiani says consumers should avoid using the Apple Watch pulse oximeter
Per Bloomberg, Masimo CEO Joe Kiani, whose company owns a patent on the pulse oximeter used by Apple on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 without permission, says that consumers are better off not using Apple's version of the technology. With a federal appeals court deciding not to give Apple a longer stay on the International Trade Commission's Import Ban on the two aforementioned Apple Watch models, a decision was made by Apple to disable the pulse oximeter on new versions of the watches.
Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models with the pulse oximeter disabled went on sale in physical and online U.S. Apple Stores starting this past Wednesday. You can tell if an Apple Watch inside a box has the pulse oximeter feature enabled or disabled by looking at a string of characters on the product's box that starts with the letter M and ends in LL/A or LW/A. The latter has the pulse oximeter disabled while the former has the feature enabled.
So if the Apple Watch's pulse oximeter shouldn't be used by consumers, what does Masimo's Kiani think people should do? During an interview Thursday on Bloomberg TV, Masimo's CEO said that consumers should buy pulse oximeters from Masimo or other firms instead. "Apple is masquerading what they are offering to consumers as a reliable, medical pulse oximeter, even though it is not," Kiani said. "I really feel wholeheartedly that consumers are better off without it."
Masimo's $300 pulse oximeter
Apple responded by saying that Masimo's CEO was wrong and that its pulse oximeter, which measures the oxygen saturation level in a person's blood, is accurate, works well for consumers, and can save lives.
Kiani said, "Pulse oximetry is not useful unless it is a continuous monitor. That happens during sleep. During sleep, you could have a desaturation that might be related to apnea. You can have a dangerous desaturation to opioid pain relief you might have taken. That is where the value comes." But Apple says that its pulse oximeter wasn't designed to be a continuous monitor and does on-demand spot checks and intermittent background checks for blood oxygen levels.
Apple also noted that despite the implication of Kiani's comments, the continuous measurements the executive describes do not make a device accurate. Apple says that accuracy is determined by comparing the readings of a pulse oximeter to high-quality reference data.
While Apple can only sell the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the U.S. with the pulse oximeter disabled, the company also has the option of settling the lawsuit and licensing the infringed patent from Masimo. Kiani says that he hasn't spoken to anyone from Apple about a settlement and added that no one from Apple has reached out to speak to him.
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