Apple Watch Health Monitoring Axed Due To Sensor Issues, Regulatory Fears

The Apple Watch, the first new product line out of Apple under CEO Tim Cook, will come with a number of health-related features, including an accelerometer and a heart rate sensor. But there was supposed to be much more.

Many features sought by Apple executives, such as sensors aimed at health monitoring, never made it into the final design, according to the Wall Street Journal. The reasons vary. Some features were too complex to put into the watch, which is set to debut in April. Others might have brought the wearable under the scrutiny of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, especially if the watch measured blood pressure and oxygen levels. Other features that got axed just didn’t meet Apple’s standards.

Without those features, the company’s executives reportedly struggled with defining the device. The result was essentially the wearable that will launch in April. Absent many health features, Apple now sees the watch as as a fashion accessory, mobile payment system and simplified communications device.

The health features that were cut from the Apple Watch could return in future versions, a source told the Journal. The first iPhone, released in 2007, had many modern smartphone features absent, such as copy and paste and picture messaging. Those made it into later versions.

Even without those features,, the Apple Watch is expected to sell well. With prices ranging from $349 for the base Apple Watch Sport model to likely as high as $5,000 for the 18-karat Gold Edition model, they should sell anywhere from 10 million to 30 million units in 2015, analysts predict.