A U.S. federal judge on Monday said Apple must face a Silicon Valley company’s claims it illegally monopolized the American market for heart rate monitoring apps for its Apple Watch.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said AliveCor Inc, whose SmartRhythm app alerts users to irregular heartbeats, could try to prove that Apple violated federal antitrust law based on its alleged “complete control” over the market for such apps.
White also dismissed AliveCor’s separate claim that Apple maintained an illegal monopoly over ECG-capable smart watches.
In its May 2021 lawsuit, privately held AliveCor accused Apple of changing the heart rate algorithm for the Apple Watch to gain an “unfair competitive edge” over rivals, and “put countless AliveCor users’ lives in danger.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hell hath no fury like the Sherlocked scorned.
The fact is that AliveCor sells a bunch of finger-pad devices that cost more, are less convenient, and more likely to get lost versus an Apple Watch that’s strapped to your wrist. AliveCor is losing because their ECG solutions are less elegant, larger, bulkier than simply wearing an Apple Watch Series 4 (released in September 2018) or later with ECG.
There a reason why founding CEO, and former Google exec, Vic Gundotra left AliveCor in February 2018: The company has no real future as currently constructed.
Can’t compete? Litigate. – MacDailyNews, May 27, 2021
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