Apple Watch Series 8 may not have a body temperature detector after all

If you were hoping for more exciting updates with the Apple Watch Series 8, you might have to start tempering expectations. While it was initially thought that the next-generation watch would have a body temperature sensor, it’s looking like that may not be the case after all. A body temperature sensor for the Series 8 has been heavily rumored for some time now. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman — who has a pretty good track record when it comes to Apple rumors — first hinted a body temperature sensor was coming in June. That was echoed by The Wall Street Journal in September for a potential fertility feature. Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also predicted a body temperature sensor that same month. All in all, there have been several solid reasons to believe this was in the pipeline. However, in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman has backtracked. When speaking about the Series 8’s potential for body temperature sensing, company is planning on adding fertility-related features as reported by The Wall Street Journal. However, Apple is notorious for sitting on features other device makers have already implemented until it’s happy with its own version. “Chatter slowing down,” as Gurman puts it, doesn’t mean a body temperature feature is completely dead. However, it does bring up another point: perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect Apple to introduce a new groundbreaking, industry-leading feature every year on its smartwatch. It’s true that since the Series 3, Apple has outpaced the competition when it came to advanced smartwatch capabilities. The Series 3 introduced cellular, the Series 4 changed the design and added FDA-cleared EKGs, the Series 5 added an always-on display, and the Series 6 added a SpO2 (blood oxygen) sensor. However, the additions have been less buzz-worthy starting with the Series 6. Not only have SpO2 sensors been on smartwatches since 2017, but the Series 7’s marquee feature was also just a larger screen. Right now, the Apple Watch is the most popular smartwatch on the market, and Apple has a yearslong lead on the competition. Wear OS watches are amid a complicated transition to a new unified platform with Samsung. Fitbit and Garmin may have advanced health features and better battery, but they both lag in smart features like cellular connectivity. Samsung comes closest, but many of its health and fitness features aren’t quite as polished. Technically speaking, there’s no need for Apple at the moment to dramatically shake things up in the short term — especially as it’s already investing resources in more groundbreaking health research. Advanced health features, especially nascent ones like noninvasive blood pressure and blood glucose, will take a while before they’re ready for consumer use. And even when they are “ready,” they’ll probably have to go through the FDA clearance process. In the meantime, it’s more than likely that future Apple Watch updates will focus more on design, incremental hardware upgrades, and software updates that make use of existing sensors. Case in point: Gurman also forecasted the Series 8 would see a rugged sports version and a new entry-level model. That said, perhaps we’d all settle down if Apple could finally figure out how to include multiday battery life.