“Best Buy Co. will start selling the Apple Watch next month, becoming the first national retail chain to offer the device outside of Apple Inc.’s own stores,” Nick Turner and Matthew Townsend report for Bloomberg.
“More than 100 Best Buy locations will have the Apple Watch starting on Aug. 7, the Richfield, Minnesota-based company said in a statement Sunday. An additional 200 stores will get the device by the holiday season, and Best Buy’s website will offer it as well,” Turner and Townsend report. “The product’s arrival could bring a much-needed lift to Best Buy, which has forecast sluggish sales in the second half of this year. A lack of innovative products has been hampering demand for the broader electronics industry, with the few bright spots being mobile phones — like last year’s release of Apple’s iPhone 6 — and ultra-high-definition televisions. ‘The Apple Watch is an important addition to an emerging product category, and we know our customers want it,’ Jason Bonfig, Best Buy’s senior category officer, said in the statement.”
Turner and Townsend report, “Best Buy is a long-time Apple partner that features boutiques dedicated to the brand in its stores. It will sell 16 Apple Watch models, including the Sport and Watch versions, as well as almost 50 accessories.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully sooner than later, there will be more. Many more.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Watch to be sold at Best Buy stores starting August 7th – July 27, 2015
The Apple Watch reviewed, 3 months on – July 24, 2015
Apple Watch after 3 months: It’s still personal – July 24, 2015
Apple Watch: A brilliant addition to my life – July 24, 2015
Non-techies love their Apple Watches even more than tech users – July 20, 2015
Look who bought the first Apple Watches – July 14, 2015
Apple Watch satisfaction is unprecedented at 97%; beats original iPhone and iPad – July 20, 2015
Sometimes I go into Best Buy without any intent to purchase anything, but just to look at the desperate, friendless and forlorn Samsung mini-store reps. I wonder if they’ll be permitted to amble over and try a Watch on, y’know, in their spare time.
Apple needs to get serious about sales, they need to start selling at Toys”R”Us!
lmao
I think Microsoft has an exclusive on that one.
Without Apple stuff to sell they should start calling it Best Bah-Bye.
A funny coincidence, cleaning out my cupboard, checking expire dates, found a can of artichoke hearts stamped BEST BY AUG 2015.
Is this their reward for accepting Apple Pay? What about Current C?
Since the Apple Watch is a high tech fashion accessory, and since I like to buy my “haute couture” T-Shirts from Best Buy this makes total sense!
And I get to pay with CurrentC, and get Best Buy points! Gold Edition please! /s
BestBuy is not a good Apple environment. Their sales staff is shorthanded, rude, biased, and confused.
Agreed. Best Buy is one of Apple’s worst enemies. Whenever I am there, the salespeople are steering customers away from Apple toward the higher profit found on Android and Windows junk. They like to confuse customers with techie specs; lots of meaningless numbers and abbreviations. Most of them, I think, realize it is not the best fit for the customer, but they have been trained “once the customer figures out that this purchase isn’t right, he will come back to buy something else.”
That’s exactly what happened when I went into Best Buy recently to buy a GoPro. A sales guy started hammering me to buy the competing Sony camera, so aggressively that I lost interest in doing business with them, and walked out.
The Apple Watch production ramp proceeds apace… Evidence? It will soon be “in-stock” at Best Buy (of all places). 🙂
I don’t like the smell of it. Best Buy. Discounted Apps. No sales data for our competitors.
Vague worries about Apple, while it is still firing on all cylinders, are ridiculous.
Worry when there is some other OS taking away share from iOS or even Mac OS. Until then, it doesn’t matter if smartphones are the next big thing or just a very nice iPhone accessory.
In the meantime, Apple is already working on the next big thing.
er…I meant Smart Watches (not smart phones).
It’s not a panic or really a worry, and it’s certainly not vague. It’s keeping on eye on Apple’s leadership and the way they handle situations. Apple Watch isn’t going to break Apple either way it unfolds.
I don’t buy from them unless there is a specific item I need and they have the best price online.
Agreed that the service is usually terrible. Unfortunately only Apple understand that if you help a customer then they will come back and buy more.