Why numbers matter:
Unlike the AppleTV which Apple always suggested was a "hobby" and never marketed it hard in the early days, or even now, and was never viewed as "Apple's next big thing," Apple has gone all out marketing-wise with the AW; getting on the wrists of opinion leaders, getting it in the windows of the most elite stores in the world; pushing attention catching variations in the tens of thousands. Apple has done nothing to soften expectations that the AW is a major product...
Except that they buried the revenue with dinky items like earbuds and iPad covers. And where Apple crowed like a proud rooster with sales numbers after the first week of a new product launch, Apple did exactly the opposite here and said, we aren't going to announce numbers because it might give info to competitors. Huh? Good numbers would certainly demoralize competitors, but low numbers might encourage them, or take some shine off Apple's coveted golden exterior.
But investors need to know if Cook knows how to sell like Jobs. The iPhone, the iPad, all could have been asterisks in history had they not been launched with pin point precision -- certainly the iPad, which was mocked for it's name and being just "a big iPhone." And the original iPad was heavy for tablet, laggy, and far from perfect. But it was marketed perfectly so that these 1st gen imperfections didn't matter.
With no sales numbers it's impossible for investors to gauge if the AW sales curve is going up, is flat, or up then straight down. But Cook is playing high the ball. Why? It may be wrong, but its prudent to think its because Apple does have something to hide here. Apple spent over a billion dollars on R&D and promoted AW at two events. So it's clearly not shy about any aspect of the product except sales numbers. But investors don't care if a product is great. They care if it has sales potential and they need good numbers to properly analyze or they have to resort to their own soothsaying.
