When Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 10 last week, an important health-tracking feature was once again conspicuous by its absence for shoppers in the US.
Because of a patent row with the medical company Masimo, the Series 10’s blood oxygen monitor will be disabled again in Apple’s homeland.
Apple is yet to strike a deal with Masimo to licence the technology and is only allowed to sell its devices in the US because the feature is disabled. The squabble doesn’t affect users around the world.
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The frustration among Apple Watch owners is likey to be increased by the news Masimo has signed a pact with Google to bring Masimo’s biosensing tech to Wear OS watches, as well has handling the rest of the internal hardware
The idea behind the ‘reference platform’ is to enable manufacturers to build Wear OS watches with a “suite of health and wellness tracking tools that consumers can trust to provide accurate, reliable data, seamless integration with Android smartphones, and a high-quality, high-performance experience.”
Masimo reckons this will be a big boost for makers of Wear OS watches and enable a consistent experience of health tracking tech across a vast range of devices. The biosensing technologies will be powered by hardware and software algorithms made by Masimo, who will also build the rest of the internals for this reference design.
Everything will be compatible with existing apps and services made for Wear OS, the medical company says. Manufacturers would still have control over external design and user interface.
in a press release, Bjorn Kilburn, GM of Wear OS at Google says: “Building quality smartwatches with premium features that users have come to expect can be time consuming and costly. With Masimo’s reference platform, smartwatch makers are able to benefit from state-of-the-art biosensing technology and quickly bring their Wear OS devices to market, at scale. Together, we’re promoting innovation across the Wear OS ecosystem that provides end users with high-performing, feature-rich devices to choose from.”
