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Winners and Losers: PS5 hits sales landmark, and Apple Watch gets banned
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It’s Christmas Eve, which means this is the penultimate Winners and Losers column of the year, as we determine the biggest winners and losers this week in the tech industry.
Despite people hurrying to wrap presents before Santa comes calling, there’s still been time for plenty of big tech news. We’ve seen rumours point towards a February 2024 release for theApple Vision Proheadset, while Microsoft has been flexing its AI muscles by revealing that itsCopilotsoftware cangenerate entire songs from a single sentence.
And yet, neither of those stories have quite been noteworthy enough to get the official winner or loser gong of this week. Keep reading on for our verdict:
Winner: PlayStation
ThePS5andXbox Series Xhave been tussling for over three years now in the latest console generation war, and it looks like we may already have a winner. This week,Reutersreported that the PS5 has sold a whopping 50 million units.
TheFinancial Timesreports that the PS5 has outsold the Xbox Series X by three to one in 2023, with the sales of Xbox consoles falling by 15% this year, whereas the PS5 sales have only increased in momentum with a mighty 65% increase.
By hitting that 50 million mark, the PS5 has now already outsold the likes of the original Xbox, Nintendo 64 and GameCube. It’s still got a long way to catch up with the PS4, which is reported to have sold 117.2 million units. But it’s important to remember that the PS5 was hamstrung by severe stock issues in the first few years of its launch, making the latest sales figures even more impressive.
So what next for Xbox? Microsoft insists that console sales aren’t the sole metric for success, especially now the company is switching its attention to its Game Pass subscription service. You could also argue that Xbox has a bright future, with Microsoft recently finalising the historic acquisition of Activision Blizzard, giving them control over popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch and more.
But as PlayStation’s landmark sales figures show, Xbox still has a long way to go to close the gap in this one-sided rivalry.
Loser: Apple
If you’re over in the USA and plan on buying theApple Watch Series 9orWatch Ultra 2, you may have to act quick, as Apple has announced plans to pull the wearables from all stores across the country – both online and in stores.
This drastic move is a result of the US International Trade Commission applying an import ban on the two watches, ruling that Apple has infringed a patent owned by medical device company Masimo. The dispute revolves around the pulse oximetry technology found inside the SpO2 sensor of the two wearables – theApple Watch SElacks this sensor, and so is unaffected by this ban.
Apple is said to be appealing the decision, but the ITC has confirmed that it will not be halting the ban in the meantime. It’s difficult to know what this means for the future of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 in the USA, but it’s certainly not a good look for Apple.
Those of us outside of the USA won’t be affected by the ban, so anyone living in the UK will still be able to buy the two watches without issue. But there’s no doubt that these events could have significant ramifications for the Apple Watch series in the future.
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Formerly the Staff Writer at Stuff Magazine, Ryan’s been writing about tech since he graduated from Cardiff University. At Trusted Reviews he is focused on everything computer-related, giving him a va…
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
