Apple to halt sales of its newest watches in US over patent dispute
If two of the latest Apple Watches are on your holiday shopping list, don’t dawdle for much longer because the devices won’t be available to buy in the U.S. later this week if the White House doesn’t intervene in an international patent dispute.
Apple plans to suspend sales of the Series 9 and Ultra 2 versions of its popular watch for online U.S. customers beginning Thursday afternoon and in its stores on Sunday. The move stems from an October decision by the International Trade Commission restricting Apple’s watches with the Blood Oxygen measurement feature as part of an intellectual property dispute with medical technology company Masimo.
The White House had 60 days to review the ITC order issued on Oct. 26, meaning Apple could have kept selling the two affected models in the U.S. through Christmas. But the Cupertino, California, company said in a Monday statement that it is pausing sales early to ensure it complies with the ITC order.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration was tracking the Apple Watch trade case. She said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has the authority to decide on the matter and that she was “carefully considering all of the factors in this case.” Jean-Pierre said she didn’t want to get ahead of any decision Tai might make.
The disruption will likely cost Apple about $300-400 million in holiday-season sales, estimated Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. That’s a relative drop in the bucket for Apple, given analysts are expecting Apple to generate nearly $120 billion in sales during the October-December period that includes the holiday shopping season.
The sales suspension on the two Apple Watch models “doesn’t move the needle much for the company, but still it couldn’t have come at a worse possible time,” Ives said.
