Apple seemingly removes Withings products from amid Nokia patent row
Apple on Friday pulled all Withings products from its virtual and brick-and-mortar stores amid an escalating patent kerfuffle with the accessory maker's parent company Nokia.
When Apple ceased Withings sales is unclear, but devices made by the Nokia subsidiary are no longer listed on Apple's website. Previously, Apple carried a wide range of iOS-compatible Withings devices in its retail stores, including the Body Cardio Scale and Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor.
Apple also expunged all mention of Withings and its product line from the Apple.com online retail database. A quick check shows text autofill no longer identifies "Withings," "Body Cardio Scale," "Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor" or "Smart Body Analyzer," all products that were in the system prior to the abrupt policy change.
Withings, a French firm specializing in health-related connected accessories, enjoyed happy -- and lucrative -- retail alliance with Apple for more than two years. While competing Withings products like the Steel smartwatch remained off-limits, most of the firm's iOS-compatible products did end up displayed on brick-and-mortar Apple store shelves.
Product sales continued after the company was purchased by beleaguered cellphone giant Nokia in April for $192 million. However, a recent salvo of patent lawsuits seems to have soured the relationship.
On Wednesday, Nokia filed suit against Apple in Germany and the U.S., accusing the iPhone maker of violating 32 patents acquired in portfolio purchases in 2013 and 2016. Apple fired back with its own lawsuit against nine patent holdings firms and Nokia itself, claiming the NPEs are working with Nokia to "extract and extort exorbitant revenues" from Apple and other manufacturers.
In response, Nokia on Thursday launched a second salvo of patent-related legal actions against Apple. In all, Nokia is claiming infringement of 40 patents in lawsuits spanning across 11 countries.
Whether or not the recent Withings removal is related to Nokia's shady legal dealings has yet to be confirmed, but Apple has in the past used its retail might as a retaliatory weapon. For example, Bose found its speakers and headphones vanquished from Apple store shelves in 2014 after the audio device manufacturer sued Beats over noise-cancelling patents. Bose products made a return two months later.
When Apple ceased Withings sales is unclear, but devices made by the Nokia subsidiary are no longer listed on Apple's website. Previously, Apple carried a wide range of iOS-compatible Withings devices in its retail stores, including the Body Cardio Scale and Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor.
Apple also expunged all mention of Withings and its product line from the Apple.com online retail database. A quick check shows text autofill no longer identifies "Withings," "Body Cardio Scale," "Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor" or "Smart Body Analyzer," all products that were in the system prior to the abrupt policy change.
Withings, a French firm specializing in health-related connected accessories, enjoyed happy -- and lucrative -- retail alliance with Apple for more than two years. While competing Withings products like the Steel smartwatch remained off-limits, most of the firm's iOS-compatible products did end up displayed on brick-and-mortar Apple store shelves.
Product sales continued after the company was purchased by beleaguered cellphone giant Nokia in April for $192 million. However, a recent salvo of patent lawsuits seems to have soured the relationship.
On Wednesday, Nokia filed suit against Apple in Germany and the U.S., accusing the iPhone maker of violating 32 patents acquired in portfolio purchases in 2013 and 2016. Apple fired back with its own lawsuit against nine patent holdings firms and Nokia itself, claiming the NPEs are working with Nokia to "extract and extort exorbitant revenues" from Apple and other manufacturers.
In response, Nokia on Thursday launched a second salvo of patent-related legal actions against Apple. In all, Nokia is claiming infringement of 40 patents in lawsuits spanning across 11 countries.
Whether or not the recent Withings removal is related to Nokia's shady legal dealings has yet to be confirmed, but Apple has in the past used its retail might as a retaliatory weapon. For example, Bose found its speakers and headphones vanquished from Apple store shelves in 2014 after the audio device manufacturer sued Beats over noise-cancelling patents. Bose products made a return two months later.
Comments
I had no idea there were such hardcore Withings fan boys.
I don't think Tim initiated any law suits since he's been CEO the last 5 years. Nokia was sold out to patent trolls for the sole purpose of suing. Why in the world should Apple finance their lawyers buy selling their products. Withings sells their products at many stores so I don't think it's a big deal for them.
I believe Nokia is trying to extort revenue out of Apple by abandoning existing FRAND terms for the patents.
Nokia is toast.
But realistically? It's like the Moto/Apple kerfuffle where each were finalizing the papers to sue the other but Moto won the footrace to the courthouse.
When was Nokia sold out to patent trolls?
With the Apple Watch Apple put their foot in the door of health monitoring products and started down the path to health related services.. But, while the Apple Watch can contribute a lot -- you also need additional inputs such as weight, blood pressure, heart rate variability, sugar levels, nutrition and even EKG's and more -- plus the data retention, collection and analytic tools to make those readings meaningful and usable... For example: a blood glucose reading of 160 may or may not be critical depending on circumstances and other readings.
But, one of the critical missing parts is equipment that health care pros can trust to be reliable and accurate. Show them a blood pressure reading from a drugstore monitor and they smile and nod and tell you "that's nice"... Yet, ongoing home monitoring is also recognized as the holy grail of health monitoring (as opposed to annual snap shots taken in your PCP's office).
Perhaps this is an opportunity for Apple to develop the tools (hardware, software and analytics) to become a critical part of home based health monitoring.
While physicians realize the benefit of home monitoring (especially for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart failure), it is the guys with the big bucks (insurers and employers) who will reap the enormous cost savings of keeping people out of the hospital where their big bucks are spent.
unlike the giant hockey pucks that are android wear devices, the AW looks great. i wear the stainless steel with leather strap and get compliments on its look. it's entirely appropriate for the theater, and swap in another strap and its perfect for the gym.
but yeah, it's a rectangle, good heavens. sorry, but since it doesn't have mechanical swinging arms there's absolutely no reason for it to be circular. form following function -- isn't that what the haters claim apple fails at? and yet, when do just that people still complain. go figure.
That's crazy, at Nokia they should know that the majority of their users use Apple iPhones how can a company that performed so bad in the past years to try to stop Apple on this debate? How can someone trust this company after this?
Why won't you be able to use it? Is Apple going to block the app? If so, I agree, how can you trust Apple after this!