“In a little over two months of availability in the June quarter, Apple sold a total of over 4.5 million Apple Watches, according to analysts’ estimates,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “That puts it well ahead of the iPhone launch in 2007, in which Apple sold just 1 million units in roughly the same time frame.”
MacDailyNews Note: In its full first quarter of iPad sales in 2010, Apple sold 3.27 million units.
“Apple Watch has a bright future,” Hibben writes. “In its launch quarter, Watch will add about $2 billion in revenue to Apple’s top line.”
“As we enter earnings season, there are many Apple Watch detractors who want to paint the Watch as a failure,” Hibben writes. “Most of the fuel for the latest round of pessimism about the Watch has come from Slice Intelligence… There could be a lot of problems with the Slice methodology, but even if it represents what it claims to represent – online sales of Watch in the U.S. – these are still significant limitations. Global sales, especially in China, are not accounted for, and neither are sales through Apple retail stores.”
“Apple’s brick and mortar stores are essential for sales of the Apple Watch. More than for any other Apple product, seeing the Watch, handling it, trying it on, are necessary in order to make a purchase decision. The Slice ‘research’ blows off the most important ingredient in the marketing of the Apple Watch, and probably the most important source of sales in the U.S. going forward,” Hibben writes. “A month after the Watch started appearing in Apple stores, supplies are still very constrained and many models are hard to come by. I performed an informal survey before writing this article in which I checked in-store availability for three different Watch models, all the stainless steel Watches. At 6 pm local time on July 14, all were available for reservation in my local Apple store. An hour later none of them were.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Do not fall for the FUD. Even hampered with seemingly interminable supply issues, Apple Watch is on its way to a resounding, record-setting success.
Watch and see.
Once users put on an Apple Watch and properly set it up to their benefit, they never want to take it off.
The Apple Watch is going to be a massive hit that sells millions upon millions of units. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, September 9, 2014
SEE ALSO:
Reports of Apple Watch’s death have been greatly exaggerated – July 14, 2015
Apple Watch volumes are much better than Slice Intelligence figures suggest – July 13, 2015
Apple Watch naysayers in a baseless feeding frenzy – July 13, 2015
Why Apple must sell one Apple Watch for every 20 iPhones or something – July 13, 2015
Apple Watch online sales in the U.S. estimated at 3 million through first 3 months – July 13, 2015
The Apple Watch demand FUD is out of control – July 9, 2015
MarketWatch hack claims ‘Apple Watch sales plunge 90%’ – July 7, 2015
Apple to release Q315 earnings, webcast live conference call on July 21st – June 29, 2015
Slice is probably very accurate with the data they have. What they don’t admit is that online sales reflect an unknown percentage of sales, so what it says about overall sales is meaningless.
I have been to the Apple Store twice to look at and try on Apple Watches, and I still haven’t made up my mind which one I’m going to get. Narrowed it down to two, though, and I’ll finalize my decision in the next couple of days. I’ll bet there are millions of customers out there who have approached the purchase of an Apple watch in exactly the same way.
Slice has been clear that its data doesn’t track international sales and doesn’t track in-store sales.
It’s certain media outlets who’ve misrepresented the data, not Slice.
As I understand it, Slice’s estimates come from people who (1) ordered their watch online, AND (2) those who then consented to let the company scan their emails for receipt data. Now, I know people who purchased their watches online (I for one), but for the life of me I know of NO ONE who did or would let such an outfit scan their email for data of any kind!
Am I wrong in outlining their methodology here? If not . . . their figures are little more than uneducated crapola!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Same here. I bought my black stainless steel on line and no way would I allow anyone or anything to go through my email. Well, my wife I’m not so sure about, but that’s another story.
Well SilverHawk, I’ve been using Slice for years and I happy to share all my purchases with them. So we don’t all hate sharing our behavior with strangers.😍
As soon as I saw the space grey sport 42mm model I was sold.
I also bought a black Leather Loop. Awesome 😊👍👍👍
In SoCal, Watches are everywhere.
And all the more amazing given that the Apple Watch can only be fully exploited with an iPhone 6/Plus.
Hmm, that’s strange. Works fine with my old iPhone5.
Same here with my 5S.
Have a 6+ but it’s too big for my pocket at work so my watch is paired with my 5S and works fine, now including Apple Pay
You can find a seamstress to increase the size of your pockets. I had a dozen shirts plus a hoodie all left breast pockets expanded vertically to fit my iPhone 6 Plus @$5.😜
Part of my job is delivering furniture. Come home with bruises in all sorts of places and big things in pockets tend to get dinged.
You can find a strong case for your iPhone 6 Plus to protect it from dings.
Comparing initial sales of the iPad or iPhone to the iWatch is meaningless. Different needs spur these sales. The Watch is quite unique in the Apple ecosystem; its success ought to be judged on its contribution to the bottom line rather than what other Apple products have done at their debut.
iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch may be quite different tools, but knowing that Apple Watch is that fastest of the three out of the gate is definitely meaningful.
It shows that Apple still has its design mojo when it comes to major 1.0 products.
Perhaps…but Apple is accessing a much larger user base than when the iPhone or iPad was introduced. So I would expect there would be greater interest. In the end, how the Watch benefits the bottom line will be the most telling statistic.
It’s true that the user base has expanded over the years, but is also true that the market for watches and/or smartwatches is much smaller than phones and personal computers (iPads replacing laptops and desktops.
As innovation pushes forward I would expect the smart watch market to exceed other markets, especially if health care providers require these devices as a requirement for enrollment.
China being a significant purchaser of Apple products now may also contribute to the Apple Watch sales total. Perhaps if you remove that portion then you would have a nice ‘apples-to-apples’ number to compare against sales of earlier Apple products. Was the 1st iPhone ever released in China? Or perhaps a comparison of share of potential customers at the time of release of each product could result in a more balanced comparison between relative sales of each Apple product.
I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago to be able to walk in the the Apple Store in Bristol, UK, and walk out with two stainless steel watches.
Slice knows nothing about that purchase
I’m sure Apple Watch sales will be great.. any way you slice it. 🙂
Guess what’s gonna happen when Apple reveals in September that all watchOS 2 WATCHes will pair with any iOS 9 device?😜⌚️😱💥👀🎉👍😃
And now you understand yet another reason why Apple never writes WATCH in text.
Did anyone forward this article to Brett Arends? He probably wouldn’t care anyway.
Thing is, the Apple that launched the watch is a powerhouse compared to the Apple that launched the iPhone. The iPhone put Apple into an entirely different orbit as far as measuring success goes. So the expectations are understandably greater.
I don’t have a watch, but I can say that the reactions from people I know who do have them has been mixed at best, and far from “once you use it, you’ll never want to go without.” My hardcore Apple fan friend feels that way. But several colleagues who aren’t as rabid on the Apple front are still trying to figure out what it’s for and are annoyed by the constant tapping/interruption.
You can say it’s on them to figure out how to use the watch appropriately, but I’m not sure that’s the wisest marketing approach.
No one has any history or measurement for a wrist-based data reader that is an extension of the iPhone for the reason of keeping you from having to take it out and read it. Numbers should not compare to the iPhone 1, but it does thrice, and that is a lowball estimate. Bloomberg and Forbes are muddying up their own water and will have to eat it a year from now when there are some real comparison numbers.
I think the Apple Watch is great for version 1, but looks like a 40 yr. old designed it. For sales to take really exponentialize, it has to appeal to teenagers visually. the FitBit doesn’t really do much, but does look modern and 2015.
The gubment better keep their hands of my Watch. They will have to pry it off my cold dead wrist. No way any company will ever force me to wear one for monitoring my habits though. That is complete BS big brother stuff. I hope that they are going to allow watch to work with ipod touch. That would help them sell more of both. Ipads need pairing ability also for that matter. I am guessing those abilities will roll out later like new colors.
I agree the health insurance angle is a hard sell, but why should a person who performs the recommended daily exercises/movements and eats responsibly have the same health insurance costs compared to a person that sits on the couch all day long and eats cakes and candies? People that have many speeding violations and/or have many accidents pay more for car insurance, so couch potatoes who neglect their health should pay more in health insurance. Sure, there might be some circumstances where someone can’t walk, etc., but everyobody else that follows the guidelines should be rewarded with cheaper insurance.
That’s my expectation as Apple’s best kept but obvious secret: that all watchOS 2 WATCHes will pair with all iOS 9 devices. iCal me.💥😃⌚️
I predict that the Apple Watch will set records for the number of Apple Watches sold. I feel extremely confident that this is going to happen. If anyone disagrees with me, I would be willing to wager a substantial sum of money on my prediction.
Wow! That’s great! Funny, I see iPhone, iPads, iPods, and MacBooks everywhere, but no Apple Watches.