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Comment by dainiusse | Hacker News Reader

This is absurd...

It's marketed as being accurate. It's not for large segments of the population. This is clearly a serious problem (and with all pulse oximeters). How is that absurd?

If skin color is a factor then some group could always make this case. It's just the reality of different skin colors existing.

Then is it too much to ask to disclose this?

Are you really backing the argument that Apple’s product team is composed of mustache-twirling racists?

Nobody is making this argument.

Of course they didn't do it to specifically disadvantage black people, but they clearly did not do their due diligence to make sure it worked properly with black people. That's the issue. You're doing semantic quibbling over your own particular notion of what "racism" is.

The Apple Watch oximeter functionality -- basically a pretty silly gimmick -- is explicitly marketed as “not intended for medical use” and “only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes.” The problems that optical oximeters have with darker skin is well known, painfully obvious, and a basic reality of physics.

I doubt it is "well known" to the billions of darker skinned potential Apple customers.

Going further, the vast majority of retail consumers have no knowledge of technical limitations regardless of skin color.

Is it? Apple got a FDA certification for the ECG, if that isn't for all consumers it's a problem.

On another note, the FDA handing out "certification" in addition to "approval" seems like a deliberate way to confuse consumers when one is basically a stamp for money.

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