[FireBeyond]

> My impression of the whole debacle is that Masimo hired up a bunch of smart people, they invented this tech while being paid next-to-nothing by Masimo (as Masimo didn’t have the product development chops to actually bring anything to market)

Your impression that Masimo "doesn't have product development chops to bring anything to market" is ... odd, considering Masimo is a nearly 40 year old company which has devices in most of the hospitals I see as a paramedic bringing patients in, and $2B a year in revenue.

> Apple tried to acquire Masimo, their CEO tried to play hard to get

Masimo stated in court - and Apple never challenged it - that their discussions were around partnership and licensing and tech. I have no idea where your claim that Masimo is just hurt/offended that they weren't "acquired by Apple". I can't even imagine why Masimo would be an acquisition target for Apple - there's an entire world of difference between personal healthcare and the world of ICUs, ORs and ERs that Masimo mostly plays in.

Their "Root" devices are actually some of the nicer ones I've used in healthcare - https://www.masimo.com/products/continuous/root/

There's definitely an undercurrent in a lot of these threads to paint Apple as being attacked by a patent troll.

[explaininjs]

Honestly that’s even worse. So there’s a successful company that has no problem selling its products for tens of thousands of dollars as part of a perpetuation of the insurance-industrial complex whereby folks without access to “good insurance” can’t receive simple, potentially life saving analysis, but they refuse to pay their engineers fair compensation. So then the engineers try to go to a place where they will recice fair compensation and far more people will have access to the life saving equipment they developed, but the CEO of their old company throws a hissy fit over the technology being accessible to folks besides the ultra wealthy and sues them. Disgusting.

[FireBeyond]

This makes little to no sense unless you take an absolutely literal view of the the "any price the market offers is in essence a fair market price" for the value of the engineers. You can't argue that without acknowledging that for the same reasons, until Apple offered those engineers more salary (and I don't think it was disclosed how different they were, just that someone made a comment of saying "$x is low"), then they were being paid the then-fair market value (I also think there's a very cogent argument to be had that SF engineering compensation is inflated). But leaving that aside:

Masimo makes as you note, industrial devices. The Root devices that I mention are not ever going to be used at home, even by the ultra wealthy.

I mean you are talking about devices that do CO-oximetry (effectively "arterial blood gas"), brain function monitoring, connect to ventilators (ISA capnography for intubated patients) and anesthesia machines and pushing aggregated data into EPIC. Like I said, these are devices being used in intensive care units, not simple finger pulse oximetry, reflected or otherwise.

They are not "gatekeeping" this technology for the ultra wealthy so poor Apple Watch owners (of which I am on my third) can't get access to it. They're entirely different models with different purposes, in an entirely differing market segment.

Also if you're referring to "potentially life saving analysis" with respect to pulse oximetry on the Apple Watch, which does it only on demand, and is not an FDA regulated medical device, regardless of patents, there's an exaggeration happening. Patients with chronic hypoxic and similar issues are not relying on Apple Watches to "potentially save their lives".

[explaininjs]

Do you have an idea of what “market value” is besides the value the market has assigned to a thing? I have no idea why you act like that is a bizarre take.

And why do you think engineers are making too much money while CEO’s are waking away with record profits off their backs?

All in all your argument is just anti-commoner pro-elite system gamers, and if that’s how you see things so be it. But I think people should be able to have their pulses measured even if the FDA doesn’t approve and they don’t have chronic hypoxia and they don’t want to integrate with Epic and they only need it on demand. I’ve had family members that were told they must go through complicated insurance processes to get fancy tens of thousands of dollar pulse measures, but then got by just fine with the watch. Masimo wants to put an end to that to secure their own profits, and this entire site loves them for it.