“Sure, Apple has reportedly sold 2.3 million watches already which will prompt many, including analysts, to hail the launch as an immediate success,” Carly Page writes for The Inquirer. “From a consumers’ perspective, however, the Apple Watch launch couldn’t have been worse.”
“As regular readers of The INQUIRER will probably have guessed, I’d quite like an Apple Watch,” Page writes. “That won’t be possible until at least June, though, as the Apple Watch sold out online in just six hours.”
“Apple had originally promised a 24 April release date, which has since been wiped from its US website, but even those who managed to hit the pre-order button at 08.01 precisely last Friday were greeted with the message that their Watch would ship in four to six weeks. This has since slipped to July and even August for some models,” Page writes. “Surely, Apple being Apple, it should have been aware of the huge demand the Apple Watch was likely to see. And surely, once it had caught on that the Watch would sell in its millions from the get-go, it could have made sure it had enough stock available before it put the gadget on sale. Not enough stock available? Don’t launch it yet.”
Page writes, “The decision to go ahead with the launch, despite a lack of stock, appears to many that the cracks in the company are starting to show, and it tarnishes Apple’s long-held reputation for the excellence of its product launches.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple began the “launch” of the Apple Watch on September 9, 2014 in order to freeze the market for Christmas 2014. No sense having people buy random stupidwatches that might delay their first Apple Watch purchase unnecessarily while lining the pockets of the stupidwatch peddlers (Samsung, Motorola, etc.). We do not know that Apple knew it lacked stock. Cook obviously though he’d have sufficient supply by late April/early May. Either demand has significantly exceeded Apple’s expectations or there are some unforeseen production yield issues for some Apple Watch component(s) that have cropped up very recently or both.
Related article:
Apple has totally botched the Apple Watch launch – April 17, 2015
Highly sought-after Apple Watch won’t hit retail store shelves until June at the earliest – April 16, 2015
Ahrendts memo: Apple Watches will not be available to buy in-store throughout May – April 16, 2015
Analyst: Low Apple Watch supply due to haptic motor and OLED display issues – April 15, 2015
Apple Watch deliveries could arrive sooner than expected – April 14, 2015
Apple Watch preorder data estimate: 1.24 million Apple Watches were preordered in the U.S. on Friday alone – April 13, 2015
Apple Watch first weekend preorders destroy Android Wear’s annual sales – April 13, 2015
Average U.S. Apple Watch pre-order was $707 – April 13, 2015
Apple Watch first-day pre-orders estimated near 1 million – April 13, 2015
Apple likely to quickly ramp up Apple Watch production – April 13, 2015
Apple Watch pre-order shipping estimates stretch into summer – April 11, 2015
Apple Watch sold out in minutes; didn’t preorder in time, how’s June sound? – April 10, 2015
Here are the dates you can expect to get your Apple Watch – April 10, 2015
Apple Watch on fire as Apple sells out fast – April 10, 2015
Apple Watch draws strong turnout at Apple Retail Stores – April 10, 2015
Apple Watch already sold out – April 10, 2015
Open thread: Did you get your Apple Watch preorder placed? – April 10, 2015
I remember a friend of wanted to buy Harley Davidson several years ago. He said there was a several-months lead time. The notion that Apple should wait until they have “enough stock” to meet demand (what does that really even mean?) is ridiculous. Plus, it’s Samsung that boasts about shipped not sold. Believe me, the reason for the whining is because they really want one, they want to be among the first, and now they’ll just have to wait. Apple will likely sell as many as they can make, and many of the whiners will be among the buyers.
How quickly we forget the iPhone 6 pre-order debacle. The site was down and if you happened to get your order in through the Apple Store app there were still errors with order information and dates. If you were dumb enough (like me) to slide over to the cell provider site to try there then they messed up your order time and put you hours later and in the queue that wouldn’t get the iPhone until end of October. This is all when ordering at the very first possible moment.
Sounds like Apple Watch pre-order went flawlessly. If you didn’t order within the first couple hours you’ll have to wait.