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I'm sure the large number of blokes pre-ordering two watches when they only want one factors into the availability problem.

Of course, Apple could have just delayed the watch release until August when they've had enough time to manufacture enough to meet demand, assuming they could accurately gauge demand without pre-orders giving concrete numbers. Who would have been happy with that?
 
This same thing happened with the iPhone releases.

Apple sets X number of Apple watches that will be shipped on the 24th via online orders and X number of watches will be available in store.

That way they can maximize number of sales. They know that X number of people will pre-order regardless of how late the ship date is and there are also X number of people that will not pre-order and will want to purchase in store or people that didn't plan ahead of time and will want to purchase a few days before release and decide they have to get in store.

The past several releases of iPhones have had the shipments pushed back only to have TONS of iPhones in stock at stores.

It is frustrating but it is a fact of life. You could say its greed or marketing gimmick to be able to announce "Apple sold X number of watches the first day" but whatever it is, that is what is happening.

It's called marketing genius. What this pre-order did was:

a) validated product/market fit (selling completely out after 5-6 hours)
b) hyped up the product even more
c) pushed a larger crowd in-store to try on the watch (many of whom changed their mind from 'not interested' to interested/buying)
d) calculated demand of specific watches and bands
e) with the exception of cancellations, locked down revenue before launch (assume 25% return/cancellation)
f) didn't clutter the in-store try on experience with people waiting in lines to buy the watch

This was about as cold and calculated as you could get. Tightly controlled supply. Tightly controlled try ons. Collecting data about demand before the official launch to maximize yield and minimize time on shelf. Pulling this off at scale is extremely difficult (and many companies would fail miserably).
 
read my reply below. It isn't about selling more when there isn't enough supply. It is about maximizing number of preorders AND number of in store sales. They know that there is a certain period people are willing to wait for a pre-order that they can get away with. It would appear on a graph as a curve getting gradually greater as the date gets further away.

Because nobody can just cancel their pre-order and buy in store instead.

Your argument is idiotic.
 
Additionally, that announcement you quoted only says that online ordering is the only way to order during the initial launch period.

We are currently in the initial launch period with the sales period being the 24th. You will be able to purchase it in store on the 24th. mark my words.

What other way of preordering would u be able to do other then online??..None. The statement Angela made is clearly saying that you will NOT be able to buy in store on the 24th. I'm too lazy to look for the links to many other articles that say the exact same thing.
 
No, it makes perfect sense. I will put it into numbers for you but on a basic scale.

Imagine Apple only produces 100 actual watches that will be available on the 24th. Assuming that no pre-orders are cancelled here is the breakdown. Believe me, they have mathematicians that have crunched these numbers and figured this stuff out on the large scale.

They could either allocate all 100 watches to online pre-orders for people that went online at midnight and said "i want one and I am asking first". Their may even be 200 pre-orders, but only 100 of the pre-orders are getting them on the 24th while the other 100 will get them as soon as possible and no watches will go to stores. This would be the most fair way to do sales because it gives them to the first in line.

Total guaranteed sales (200)

They could allocate 50 watches to online pre-orders and 50 to stores. Then there are 150 people still waiting for their preorder online while 50 people in store purchase on the 24th.

Total guaranteed sales (250)

They could allocate 10 watches to online pre-orders and 90 to stores. Then there would be 190 people still waiting for preorder online and 90 who purchase on the 24th in store.

Total guaranteed sales (280)

If you don't believe that a company as rich and powerful as Apple doesn't crunch numbers to determine how many pre-orders they can get away with while maximizing in store sales at the same time then you are truly clueless.

You can make up a scenario with made up numbers, but that doesn't make what you are saying make sense. People that go get products from the Apple Store on launch day typically know about the products and will get it no matter what. If you tell them it won't be in store, they aren't going to not buy it because of that. They'll preorder it like everyone else, they even have the chance to try it on in store first. I'm not sure what makes you think that pre-order people would pre-order no matter what. Your scenario negates that the long wait for pre-orders is deterring people from making the purchase. You assume that pre-order people will only preorder and in-store people will only purchase in-store when the vast majority of buyers are flexible.

Apple Also wouldn't allocate the vast majority of watches to retail and leave pre-order people hanging. That would be a terrible customer experience and and set a terrible precedent about product launches. You seem to have some skewed view about the iPhone 6 launch. Most carrier stores did not receive any inventory for launch day. Apple Stores got a very limited quantity. The VAST majority were mailed directly to consumers. Even then, Apple took a lot of heat for having them in stores. What they are doing with this launch takes care of that issue.
 
And it really doesn't matter as far as sales go how many are available online and in store. Say 100 people want the watch...100 people will get the watch. Some in store, some online. Some on the 24th, some after the 24th. But the number of people getting the watch doesn't increase no matter how u slice up the inventory.
 
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