“During his trip last week across China, Apple CEO Tim Cook held a meeting at Apple’s China headquarters with several employees in attendance, according to sources with knowledge of the briefing,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac. “Notably, Cook promised that Apple Stores will begin carrying Apple Watch stock ‘by June.'”
“Multiple employees in attendance reportedly also asked Cook about Apple Pay’s rollout in China. Cook revealed that part of the reason for his visit to China alongside Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue was to meet with potential China Apple Pay partners,” Gurman reports. “‘I think we’ve made progress [on Apple Pay for China],’ Cook said. He added that ‘there’s different people and different banks involved,’ but he is hoping that the launch will occur ‘soon.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good news on both, especially so on the Apple Watch retail availability. We’ve had our fun with seemingly being the only Apple Watch users in the world for many weeks now.
It’s time to let others teach the world’s cashiers to scan our Watches, not stand there staring blankly at our outstretched wrists.
CEO Tim Cook says Apple Pay is expanding to one of the most populous nations on earth, the nation with the world’s largest economy, so no wonder AAPL is down today. Makes perfect sense. /s
So about the time my Watch arrives late May or June from Apple after I ordered online the first day of sale, they’ll be in stores. Nice. Not early enough bird gets the Watch worm.
Got notification today that my 42mm Milanese Loop band shipped and will be here Thursday. I’ve had my 42mm SS WATCH w/ black sport band since 4/28.
I was just notified this afternoon that my 38mm black stainless steel will arrive tomorrow. I’m ready!
Forget about Apple Pay in China, let’s get it in Canada now!
By the way, I downloaded the update for Apple Watch and my new 42 mm Grey Sport is now so much more ‘watchier’.
“Watchier” I like that.
This is crap. I ordered a Space Black SS just 3 minutes after they went on sale and I still don’t have any visibility to it. I wrote Tim yesterday and an Executive Team member called me within the hour. At least I got to vent.
He said, ‘that’s a popular model’. Bullshit, I said. The popular models were the $350 aluminum, not the $1100 watch I ordered. The issue has less to do with demand and far more to do with supply.
I’m honestly far less excited and experiencing buyer’s remorse. I’m always an early adopter but this time I feel like Apple screwed me and I’m a little pissed. I say this honestly, not bloviating, if watches land in stores before my order arrives, I’ll return my watch and wait for generation II.
If you are wanting to ‘get back at Apple’ then you could glance twice as much at your watch when it arrives and get twice as much use out of it as you are supposed to. There, take that Apple!!!
I agree with you that part of the happiness / experience us early adopters get is having our new device on Day 1. I like you, dragged my rear end out of bed at 2:45am that morning so I could order at 3am. My email notification of my order arrived at 3:02am – yet my WATCH (42mm SS WATCH) did not arrive on launch day – I was fortunate that it did arrive the following Tuesday. But in my irritation on launch day, I did send Tim a similar email that you sent – expressing my dissatisfaction with how this launch was handled, and expressing that when the inevitable survey arrives asking how much I love my WATCH, I will not be able to give it a 100% satisfaction rating, because Apple did not meet my expectations on delivery. Granted, my expectations are high, but since the first iPhone Apple has never failed to deliver my new device on launch day … until the WATCH. They set the standard for me over the last 8 years. That wasn’t just my wild fanboy expectations – they have always delivered in the past.
That being said … once you do get your WATCH you’re going to love it! It is possibly the best piece of technology I have ever bought from Apple. It’s hard to put into words how great it is, you have to experience it to understand. And you will eventually get to experience it …