EN
Recently it was proved for 1 < p < ∞ that $ω^{m}(f,t)_{p}$, a modulus of smoothness on the unit sphere, and $K̃ₘ(f,t^{m})_{p}$, a K-functional involving the Laplace-Beltrami operator, are equivalent. It will be shown that the range 1 < p < ∞ is optimal; that is, the equivalence $ω^{m}(f,t)_{p} ≈ K̃ₘ(f,t^{r})_{p}$ does not hold either for p = ∞ or for p = 1.