“Just over four months since the Apple Watch began its Apple Retail Store debut for try-ons, Apple has started to tweak the process this week, according to Apple Retail employees,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.
“Until this week, a customer who walked into an Apple Store seeking to try on Apple Watch was required to make an appointment and provide details such as their name and Apple ID to an Apple Store employees,” Gurman reports. “For this week forward, Apple Stores are speeding up the try-on process by dropping the former appointment requirement and not requiring potential customers to share their information with the store employee.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, it’s now a first-come, first serve deal for walk-in customers interested in Apple Watch.
In a related tidbit, we’ve heard from sources in positions to know that the Apple Watch rollout fiasco has “negatively impacted” the company’s expectations. Apple Watch works best when your friends and family also have them. So that users can send doodles, heartbeats, tap wrists, etc. Our sources say:
• “Early adopters felt – and continue to feel – like they’re alone on an technological island… Having an Apple Watch is still like having a messaging app that nobody else has.”
• “There weren’t nearly enough Apple Watches available for too long a period of time… Launch momentum was squandered.”
• “Apple really screwed the pooch with this launch. Hopefully, the near-total lack of supply, which endured for months, hasn’t squelched an excellent product.”
• “Huge demand. No supply. Now Apple has huge supply and muted demand that they caused by launching with no supply.”Rumors abound that a last-minute issue with Taptic Engines forced Apple to launch with an almost total lack of Apple Watch supply. The whole convoluted online-only, then online reservation-only for Apple Store try-ons (from which users had to then, again, order online), was a result of launching without anything resembling an adequate supply. One of our sources claims that nearly every Apple Watch unit sold to date was assembled after pre-orders were taken on April 10th.