Apple Responds to Concerns About Apple Watch Launch: Deliveries Could Arrive Sooner Than Estimated

[MacHiavelli]

Apple had a million pre-orders in part just because people couldn't see the Apple Watches in the flesh. How many will be returned? How many people double ordered, planning to return at least one version?

Complete mess. Terrible PR for Apple. So many missed opportunities. A success, but not the monster success it should have been.

 

[stanhope]

It almost seams Cupertino didn't get a handle on demand and since they have 0 experience in this new wearables category they decided to "build to order" hense the variable delivery dates.. Let's hope all goes well at launch..

I'd say this had little to do with Cupertino not getting a handle on demand more the switch in retail strategy that simply does not work with the Apple customer nor with it's employees. As a person who has shopped at "carriage trade" stores all of my life, what they tried to do with this launch was laughable and supercilious. The culture of Apple, as Steve Jobs set it, is more democratic and not elitist. The kids that work at Apple, for the most part, don't seem to come from homes where Mom shopped at Bergdorf Goodman and Dad bought cufflinks and watches at Cartier. When those poor kids tried to pull out the display cushions for the watches, it just looked clumsy. Their wiping of the watches in full view was plebian. Tim, please review the comments of your customers and not the new hires from Yves St. Laurent. Those folks don't have a clue.

 

[Sodner]

I'm sorry but anyone following the Apple Watch release closely, like those of us on here have been, should have known with certainty that there would be no watches in store on the 24th.

Sure at one point I thought we could do in store pickup, but when that option wasn't available during my preorder I simply accepted home delivery.

It's sour grapes that there model is back ordered or that they did not order soon enough.

 

[Siderealx]

I really think the bottom line is they've been under pressure to go to launch before production is really ready. So they're staggering supply via strange sales limitations which is already affecting user experience. Why else would wait times be so long?

 

[freediverx]

Let's face it in the USA if something happened in one of these lines, some fat lawyer would find a way to make Apple responsible. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that they take a similar approach with the next iPhone release.

If they do so, hopefully they better engage the public to inform them of why they are trying reduce launch day lines.

I don't see what's so confusing about this. Apple has limited stock of the Watch and initial demand has exceeded expectations. Given the history of non-Apple customers clogging up lines at retail stores so they can purchase and resell iPhones in China, it makes perfect sense for Apple to institute an online only purchase policy to make sure the initial Watch inventory goes to their customers and not to scalpers. There is no good reason for them to divert inventory for sales at brick & mortar stores.

 

[ctdonath]

Why are people bitching about the 'complicated' launch process? What is so complicated about it? Pre-orders start on 4/10 at 12:01am PDT and the watch can only be purchased online. There, simple as ****.

Well, when a co-worker placed her order online at 12:02am PDT and got a delivery date of May, something ain't right with the launch process. Maybe "complicated" doesn't quite cut it, but it sure isn't "stand in line, get Watch".

If you want to touch one, make an appointment and come to the store.

I want to touch MY Watch, not just briefly fondle one at the store.

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I really think the bottom line is they've been under pressure to go to launch before production is really ready. So they're staggering supply via strange sales limitations which is already affecting user experience. Why else would wait times be so long?

Flip side: if they're _late_ regarding promised dates, customers will be seriously upset. Better to predict a delay then produce early, than predict on-time then be late.

 

[jtmarine73]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why Apple didn't sell the watch and the bands separate. Trying to decide what to have in stock with so many options is nearly impossible. Store supply, once they sell it in stores, is going to a nightmare.

 

[ctdonath]

not the monster success it should have been.

sold more Watches in one day than the entire smartwatch industry did all last year. That's a monster success.

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When there's a worldwide demand for a new product it's totally normal that not everyone can get one on release date.

There's "not everyone can get one on release date", and then there's "facing a one-month delay for being literally one minute 'late'."

 

[PhiLLoW]

Totally missed my point.

But the movie is in the theater if you get there in plenty of time OR preorder your ticket and pick it up when you arrive on 1 May. The product is still there to consume. Can everyone see any showing they want? No, but some get to see it on the day promised that it became available.

In the case of the watch, it's not.

So you insist that absolutely NOBODY will receive his watch on the 24th?

 

[Thunderhawks]

Why are people bitching about the 'complicated' launch process? What is so complicated about it? Pre-orders start on 4/10 at 12:01am PDT and the watch can only be purchased online. There, simple as ****.

If you want to touch one, make an appointment and come to the store.

I always go one step further:

Why can't people just WAIT until there is plenty of supply, online and in the stores without waiting. I wouldn't even bother to get a try on appointment.

I'll look at the watch when they have plenty, plus I can read some feedback from our fellow pioneers of beta testing.

Until then, let's all not forget:

We have lived without the Apple watch our entire lives, so a few months or days of waiting is not going to kill you!

In the meantime you iPhone will still do the job

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sold more Watches in one day than the entire smartwatch industry did all last year. That's a monster success.

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There's "not everyone can get one on release date", and then there's "facing a one-month delay for being literally one minute 'late'."

And then there is also a production capacity.

If you know how one can make millions of an item which comes in various configurations and it will not be known who buys what, please let us in on your secret.

 

[MacHiavelli]

sold more Watches in one day than the entire smartwatch industry did all last year. That's a monster success.

But should have sold 4 or 5 times what they did.

 

[NAYo2002]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why Apple didn't sell the watch and the bands separate. Trying to decide what to have in stock with so many options is nearly impossible. Store supply, once they sell it in stores, is going to a nightmare.

This certainly would make things easier. Have them all come with black sport bands and then sell every other bands separately. That way they'll only really have to track 3 items. (Assuming SB SS will still be only sold with the link band of course)

 

[stanhope]

Oh, now you've done it, Andrew. You're email went front page and everyone's going to queue up in front of the Apple Stores on the morning of the 24th in the hopes of snagging a few possible WATCHes in stock.

So why is that his fault [assuming you are not joking]? The new retail scheme was just stupefying dumb. Somebody needs to get this rectified post haste.

 

[baller1308]

But should have sold 4 or 5 times what they did.

I wasn't expecting them to sell a lot in one day. I'm sure there were be a lot more sales in the next few weeks and I think a lot of people didn't order when they see shipping dates that are months out. I would have ordered one, but might try and get one the day of release.

 

[Karma*Police]

Exactly my thoughts. There should have been a grace period between the start of try-on appointments and the beginning of pre-orders. They probably would have been able to avoid many returns as well.

Yeah, and to simplify things further, they should have just made the try on period a first come first served affair. The reservation process was unnecessarily complicated and I'm sure it angered more than a few walk ins who wanted to try on the watches but couldn't.

 

[jbachandouris]

Well, when a co-worker placed her order online at 12:02am PDT and got a delivery date of May, something ain't right with the launch process. Maybe "complicated" doesn't quite cut it, but it sure isn't "stand in line, get Watch".



I want to touch MY Watch, not just briefly fondle one at the store.

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Flip side: if they're _late_ regarding promised dates, customers will be seriously upset. Better to predict a delay then produce early, than predict on-time then be late.

I ordered at 3AM EST(12:00PST). When I submitted the order for my Space Gray Sport with black band, it said April 24th delivery. My confirmation email was time stamped at 3:05am and now the date says May 13-27 (4-6 weeks).
I'm sorry, I'm pretty sure they didn't sell out in 1 minute. Worst 'launch' ever.

 

[killerwhack]

Reminiscent of the eighties

All this hype and concern about delivery dates and such reminds me of the eighties and the release of the Apple III and the Macintosh.

 

[Alumeenium]

From second one, I said that Angela Ahrendts would be to Apple what Ron Johnson was to JC Penney. A Burberry experience is in no way translatable to an Apple one. The head set of the consumer base is drastically different as is that of the staff. As was said in the article, the staff gave wildly different accounts of what was to happen. One such notion, often repeated, was that we could pre-order and pick up our merchandise in any Apple store we selected. I asked this repeatedly of many different Apple sales people as I am headed on vacation and will be away from my primary residence on April 24. Some of the staff indicated that the bands were not interchangeable. I could go with illustrations of misinformation on but suffice it to say that the launch was a retail disaster. The formidable sales have more to do with the product that the "Cartier" style launch. If you think about it for a moment with anything resembling a clear head, what company on Earth would not want the FREE publicity in every national media vehicle and all of the local ones where there is an Apple store in market generated by the lines waiting for the newest Apple thing. The people interviewed in line always say glowing things about Apple and I have never seen one say anything negative. The local reporters ruminate on how Apple employees hand out water to those in line and coffee when it is cold. You'd swap this for what I experienced in the 2 stores I visited on launch day i.e. Skokie and Northbrook? Since the "try ons" were at a communal table, I was able to see the vastly different experiences different clerks gave. Someone at Apple with half a marketing brain and the other half a deep understanding of the Apple core customer needs to intervene and right this insane concept. I completely agree, if there is no product available at the Apple retail stores on April 24 then "launch" was not a mistake, it was a lie. In one day they have turned goodwill into a horror.

Apple Retail had its peak from 2006-2009

You knew something was rotten in Denmark when there was no line for the Verizon iPhone... Every launch since has been more and more underwhelming

 

[WalterNeff]

My order processed at 12:04 am

4-6 week; May 13–27
Apple Watch Sport 42mm Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band

 

[stanhope]

Apple Retail had its peak from 2006-2009

You knew something was rotten in Denmark when there was no line for the Verizon iPhone... Every launch since has been more and more underwhelming

Ah the halcyon days of Ron Johnson...somebody call him, it's an emergency!!! Perhaps he can do what that TV show "Botched" does.

 

[cjt3007]

I feel like someone shouldn't be able to walk into the store and purchase an apple watch that someone else has already pre-ordered online and has to wait months for! that would be ridiculous, and the opposite of the customer experience Apple is trying to achieve. They should just put all resources into shipping to pre-order people first, and only start stocking the stores once the people that pre-odered on 4/10 have their watches.

 

[AppleWes]

I feel like someone shouldn't be able to walk into the store and purchase an apple watch that someone else has already pre-ordered online and has to wait months for!...

Exactly my thought too! It seems like you'd have a large number of very upset customers if people are able to walk in and buy one, without pre-orders being filled at all.

 

[Chcougar1]

If watches are available in store on launch day and my pre ordered watch doesn't come on the same day, I will be pretty upset.

 

[2457282]

My wife's watch has an expected delivery of July. I really do hope Timmy and Jony find a way to speed that up. My watch arrives in May and she is just going to be stewing until she gets hers.

 

[bushman4]

Poor launchh to say the least. People ordered watches as gifts. not knowing delivery time would be a month or two just 2 or 3 minutes into the ordering process
Launch should have been in May.