“An estimated 957,000 American shoppers ordered Apple Watches on Friday — a sign the tech giant’s newest gadget is already seeing more initial success than its first iPhone or the iPod,” Barbara Kollmeyer reports for MarketWatch.
“That estimate comes from Slice Intelligence, which measures digital commerce by tracking consumer e-receipts. Its data from 9,080 online shoppers showed an average of 1.3 watches bought per customer, with $503.83 spent per item. Of course, no one buys a watch and a half, so it’s likely some buyers went for more than one,” Kollmeyer reports. “Putting those figures together, that means Apple could have shifted 1.24 million watches on its first day of preorders on Friday.”
MacDailyNews Take: Those figures are limited to the U.S. only.
“Edward Yruma and the team at KeyBanc Capital Markets say there are signs of a strong start for preorders and Apple is set to sell all of its production volume for the first three months. And with that, the ‘moment of reckoning’ has arrived for the traditional fashion watch market, they said in a note dated Sunday,” Kollmeyer reports. “‘After trying on the Apple Watch, visiting stores and based on our field work, we are now more convinced that the Apple Watch will be disruptive to the fashion watch market. At a minimum, the widespread buzz may cause something of a standstill in the watch market,’ said the KeyBanc analysts.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bloodbath!
MDN take BLOODBATH
Looks much better.
👋 Apple 👋👋👋
Barbara Kollmeyer is a hack writer.
Had there been no Apple Watch, there would probably have been 1.0 million fewer watches sold in the USA this weekend. This is a boost to the watch industry, but a gut punch to the competition of Apple in the watch business. How soon until we begin to hear about beleaguered watchmaker “X” giving up after decades in the watch business? I doubt it will be like the failed iPod competitors who disappeared almost overnight, but it is gonna hurt.
As there are already reports of the opposition almost halving prices I think that begun even before the weekend.
I heard about price cuts for other “smart” watch makers, but are you sure traditional watchmakers also cut their prices?
..despite the multiple reviews that are so slanted negatively against Apple that they really should be put in the opinion section.
“It’s *LIKELY* some customers bought more than one”? Wow, more like totally obvious, why even say that?
Maybe it’s to compensate for any statistical errors considering the ‘data’ of 957,000 unit pre-ordered is extrapolated from 9,080 e-receipts sampled by Slice Intelligence. Another article uses the same data and also states Apple has not released numbers yet..
I guess 2-3 million worldwide. 💥😱😜🚀
The problem is even for the really nice premium traditional watch makers is the Apple Watch will prove itself so invaluable and hard to be left without that even those who might occasionally swap out the Apple Watch for a Rolex, etc., (on a special night or day out) will start opting to continue using their gold Apple Watches. The addiction and convenience to it’s power overcoming all other concerns. Yes that change in behavior pattern is coming with an iPhone and Apple Watch match up.
At the same time I don’t want the traditional Swiss premium watch to disappear either. Old fashioned has it’s place like hard copy books and glasses on 24th Century Captain Kirk’s face.
In the space of a half an hour, Apple took over $600 million away from the watch industry. Do you like apples?
How’d you like them Apples?