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Cook on Apple Watch: no numbers, but recent claims wrong
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Jul 21, 2015, 06:46 PM
 
Although Apple has declined once again to provide sales numbers on the Apple Watch in order to avoid giving valuable information away to competitors, CEO Tim Cook took time out Tuesday's conference call with analysts to specifically challenge a recent report by Slice Intelligence that claimed that Watch sales were declining, and had fallen 90 percent since its debut weekend. Cook said that in fact, sales in June were the highest yet.

The report had been widely discredited previously as being based on numerous faulty assumptions, and makes for a perfect example of Cook's often-repeated warnings to analysts to treat single-source reports on Apple's supply chain with suspicion. Critics of the Slice report had previously pointed out that production had increased, and that the number of points of sale and the long-delayed beginning of walk-in, in-store sales more likely pointed to a drop in online "reservation" type orders, but not to sales overall. Cook said that sales of the Apple Watch had, in fact, increased with each month -- meaning that May's sales figures were better overall than the explosion of pre-orders that happened in April, and that June's figures were better still.

Cook and CFO Luca Maestri had to reiterate that Apple wasn't going to share sales figures on the Apple Watch twice during the conference call, but Maestri did say that the Watch sold better in total in its first nine weeks than either the iPad or iPhone had done in their original sales debuts to that same point. By comparison, the iPhone sold about one million units in its first three months in 2007, and the iPad sold more than three million units in its debut quarter. This hints that estimates of over four million Apple Watches sold in around the same time frame may even be conservative (while all rival smartwatch makers combined sold around four million units in all of 2014, by way of contrast).

Apple also noted that Apple's "other products" category -- which includes the iPod and Apple TV -- grew 56 percent year-over-year. Though no figures are available, the Apple's TV's slow but steady growth was probably offset by the iPod's sales decline over the last quarter (since the new models weren't yet introduced until the current quarter), leading analysts to believe that most if not all of the categories growth would be due to the Apple Watch.

Cook noted specifically that the vague sell-through figure was despite the incredible constraint of product following initial pre-orders, and that most of the 680 worldwide points of sale for the product didn't receive stock until mid-June, near the end of the quarter. Cook said that supply had only "in the last few days" caught up with demand, and hinted that the company expects the product to be the big hot seller for the Christmas gift season later this year.

Early estimates for Apple Watch sales for the whole of 2015 ranged from between five million and 20 million units. It seems very likely that Apple has sold at around the low end of those predictions already through pre-orders and recent accelerating sales, and thus should be on track to reach the upper end of predictions by year's end, even if sales only grow slowly over the next two quarters remaining in the year.
     
Mr. Strat
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Jul 21, 2015, 07:33 PM
 
I've got mine...and lovin' it!
     
pairof9s
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Jul 21, 2015, 08:11 PM
 
Got my first look at the Watch this past weekend at the Apple Store. They look real nice, especially the interface. Still, I feel better to wait until version 2.0 shows up.
     
Charles Martin
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Jul 21, 2015, 09:02 PM
 
Pair: if by "version 2.0" you mean second-gen hardware, you might be waiting quite a long while. If you mean software, then watchOS 2.0 is expected to be out in the fall. At a guess, the next hardware version of the watch isn't likely (IMO) in several years.
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Stuke
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Jul 21, 2015, 10:36 PM
 
I'm with pairof9s...I'm waiting until some missing elements appear. I don't know but for me, I've used Casio watches for decades and for at least the past 10 with barometer, altimeter, etc. sensors built in. For outdoor adventures and workouts, I want a difference in values, and without a phone tucked in my pocket. Don't know the technical hurdles but seems that Apple can figure this out. It won't stop me upgrading my iPhone every other HW generation, so might as well skip the first AW generation, like iPhone, and wait for HW and SW upgrade.
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Charles Martin
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Jul 22, 2015, 01:25 AM
 
Stuke: I believe you may be labouring under some misinformation. The Apple Watch can keep track of your workouts just fine without the iPhone being present.
Charles Martin
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revco
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Jul 22, 2015, 02:37 AM
 
>>...declined once again to provide sales numbers on the Apple Watch in order to avoid giving valuable information away to competitors...
     
RobOnTheCape
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Jul 22, 2015, 06:46 AM
 
funny that when having coffee I see people with mac laptops and of course iPhones, but haven't seen an iwatch anywhere - at the coffee shop or just people walking around.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jul 22, 2015, 08:56 AM
 
That's not "funny".

Three million sold vs. a Mac installed user base somewhere around 90 million, and an iPhone installed user base in the hundreds of millions, that's expected.
     
DiabloConQueso
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Jul 22, 2015, 10:21 AM
 
Maybe he hasn't seen any "iwatches" anywhere because Apple doesn't even sell a product called "iwatch." /s
     
Charles Martin
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Jul 22, 2015, 11:46 AM
 
I see them around, but then I notice such things. Not as common as iPhones, obviously, but I've seen a half-dozen or so on strangers' wrists thus far. They're more common than Chromebooks at coffeeshops, let me put it that way.
Charles Martin
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