“Sales of the new Apple Watch have plunged by 90% since the opening week, according to a new market-research report,” Brett Arends writes for MarketWatch.
“Apple has been selling fewer than 20,000 watches a day in the U.S. since the initial surge in April, and on some days fewer than 10,000, according to data from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Slice Intelligence,” Arends writes. “That is a sharp decline from the week of the April 10 launch, when Apple sold about 1.5 million watches, or an average of about 200,000 a day, Slice estimates.”
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, ya don’t say? Don’t all products with massive pent-up demand experience huge launches only to decline significantly once the initial early adopter rush subsides? Yes, of course they do. It’s happened with iMacs. It’s happened with MacBooks. It’s happened with iPods. It’s happened with iPads. And it’s happened with iPhones. It’s normal.
Don’t all products with huge supply/demand imbalances see sales declines precisely because when there is limited product to sell, there are limited unit sales? Yes, of course they do.
Arends writes, “Furthermore, two-thirds of the watches sold so far have been the lower-profit ‘Sport’ version, whose price starts at $349, according to Slice, rather than the costlier and more advanced models that start at $549.”
MacDailyNews Take: As if Apple (and anyone else with at least half a brain) didn’t expect exactly such a product mix. Arends’ disinformation is ham-handedly transparent.
Arends writes, “Slice bases its research on electronic receipts sent to millions of email addresses following purchases.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, look at that dramatic, oh-so-worrisome “drop-off” that began in mid-June – or precisely when Apple Watch began arriving in Apple Retail Stores. It would seem that Slice is not seeing emailed electronic receipts from Apple Retail Stores to their customers. Shocker.
Near the end of his piece, and we do mean piece, Arends admits, “You’d expect sales of any new product to tumble after the initial bump (and the first week’s numbers are heavily weighted toward the opening day). But this fall-off in sales, if confirmed, nonetheless looks ominous.”
MacDailyNews Take: It only looks ominous when you fail to consider, out of ignorance or via malicious intent, Slice’s methodology or when Apple Watch finally hit Apple Retail Stores.
Full article (tucked behind donotlink) here.
MacDailyNews Take: Who paid for this hit-piece? Outclassed stupidwatch peddlers? Deep-pocketed Apple shorts? Who?
Last October, Apple stated very clearly that they would not be reporting Apple Watch sales figures:
We’ll be creating a new reporting category called other products. This will encompass everything we report in the accessories category today, including Beats headphones and speakers, Apple TV, and peripherals and accessories for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod. In addition, we’ll begin to include iPod sales in the other products category, and we will also reflect sales of Apple Watch in this line item once it begins shipping in early calendar 2015. — Nancy Paxton, Apple’s Senior Director of Investor Relations
I’m not very anxious in reporting a lot of numbers on Apple Watch… because our competitors are looking for it. – Apple CEO Tim Cook
Oh, BTW, here’s a little something that Brett Arends scribbled for MarketWatch back in January 2011:
Here’s how it’s going to go down: First, scammers will go into the derivatives market and buy a bunch of put options on Apple shares. Puts are effectively a bet that a stock will drop quickly. Then they’ll send out word that Steve Jobs is terminally ill with cancer and isn’t expected to return to work. Simple. Easy. Free money.
(Above, substitute “Steve Jobs is terminally ill with cancer and isn’t expected to return to work” with “Apple Watch sales plunge 90%.” – MDN Ed.)
The stock will plummet. Nervous investors will bail in panic. The put options will balloon in value… The scam artists will cash out, and walk away What makes this possible is Apple’s refusal to say anything whatsoever about Jobs’s illness or his absence… Nature abhors a vacuum. And if Apple won’t offer details, that leaves the door wide open for others.
Brett sees the door wide open, an information vacuum into which he’ll happily take a dump. Don’t fall for his shit.
