Apple Watch Orders Will Remain Exclusively Online Through May, Deliveries Begin April 24

[HobeSoundDarryl]

What if they released it a week or two later?

Don't be logical. The day Apple chose was the one and only perfect day to launch it. That people are griping about it not being in stock or selling out within 1 minute of when it could be ordered is ONLY those griper's fault. In short, the gripers just "ordered it wrong" and/or should be happy to stand by and wait for their order to be fulfilled whenever Apple gets around to it. Apple is making them as fast as they can. It's hard to make a watch. We cannot fault Apple because every single person on the planet and some of their dogs want an Apple watch on the first day. If some have to wait weeks or months, they should be thrilled to be in the official Apple que- just think, that means that their name is visible at times on an Apple computer inside Apple HQ. Maybe even Tim or Ive might see their name in that list? WOW!

My RDF and ADF are cooking now.

 

[doelcm82]

Can we fire her now please?

This and the MacBook launch have been possibly the worst product launches from Apple in a good number of years.

Two weeks ago no one was even going to buy these products, and we were going to fire Tim.

Now Apple can't make enough to meet demand and we want to fire Angela.

I suggest we wait until the dust settles and then decide who gets bonus AAPL stock options.

 

[bbeagle]

I guarantee that she doesn't have the power to change the launch date. She was given the date and told to get the stores ready, and she's been doing what she can with what she's been given.

She doesn't have the power to change the date - (actually she DID change it to two weeks before).... none available to buy on 4/24....

She IS in charge of the details... she goofed up by not securing some inventory for try-on appointments or for launch day. She could have easily secured 1,000 watches per store - 200,000 watches total, and the remainder could have gone to pre-orders... but I think she thought she'd have stock available after pre-orders. She's never dealt with something that sold out like this before. She should have anticipated, had a back-up plan, but she didn't.

Actually, her backup plan was to remove 'available 4/24' to 'it's coming'

 

[AppleScruff1]

Don't be logical. The day Apple chose was the one and only perfect day to launch it. That people are griping about it not being in stock or selling out within 1 minute of when it could be ordered is ONLY those griper's fault. In short, the gripers just "ordered it wrong" and/or should be happy to stand by and wait for their order to be fulfilled whenever Apple gets around to it. Apple is making them as fast as they can. We cannot fault Apple because every single person on the planet and some of their dogs want an Apple watch on the first day. If some have to wait weeks or months, they should be thrilled to be in the official Apple que- just think, that means that their name is visible at times on an Apple computer inside Apple HQ. WOW!

My RDF and ADF are cooking now.

I see the second coffee is kicking in.

 

[diegogaja]

Or, and what is more likely, Apple had always planned this style rollout and people are just spinning it negatively.

Angela A. has repeatedly stated the long lines was something she was looking to get rid of specifically for the apple watch. It's obvious for anyone who's been paying the least bit attention that from initial announcement to execution this is unlike any previous launch for a new category that apple has done in the past. Apple wanted the experience to be different. It knew (or assumed it had) it has a hit in their hands. The problem? Nobody else knew until they could get the product in their own hands. Hence the different approach and different customer experience they were even smart enough to build flexibility into the launch, allowing production to catch up to demand.

People think it's smart to over-produce a product and possibly have to write it off because they have a lot of money? BS. alternatively, Apple would have been raked over the coals even further if they said they would have product available on launch day and had lines out he door with not enough supply. No matter what Apple does people will bitch however I think they did this the right way

Reposted from previous thread before moderator redirected everyone to this one:

Year after year with every Apple product launch, it's either been "blockbuster" or in the very least, initial demand has always outpaced initial supply. So, for a company with over $180B in the bank, they could've done better research, as well as take a calculated risk to ramp up the initial supply.

I mean, Microsoft made a huge error in producing too many Windows RT tablets which resulted in a write down of $1B, and Amazon lost a couple hundred million with their Fire Phone. Both of these are a mere fraction - however significant - compared to their bottom line.

The difference here is that Apple knows better and we know they know better, so at this point, people (and those famed analysts you always hear making up rumors) might have some justification to start to perceive Apple as naïve, ill-prepared, overly-conservative, or even stingy, and/or cheap. That makes for a poor customer experience and hurts their image, at least for this launch. I wouldn't be surprised if this hurts Angela's reputation as well - you know some journalist, blogger, or analyst is going to want to place blame somewhere.

 

[cmichaelb]

Actually, not having try ons prior to the preorder date seems perfectly reasonable. Get people to buy something on impulse. If they try it, you give them the opportunity to think about it and deliberate on whether or not they even need it.

And how did they fail to communicate how the watch will be available? It's available online only. The reason we even know that is because they communicated that fairly clearly.

• Show where in the commercials, which is what most people see, where it says online only.

• Show me where on the old webpage where it said the watch was online only on the 24th.

They did not communicate clearly.

Here's a great example of the general public-

A friend, mid 40's, owns a mac, an iPhone 5S, three kids, all have iPhones etc.

When I walked in with my iPhone 6, my friend was amazed at how bigger it was. My friend thought the iPhone 6 was supposed to be the same size as the 5/5S.

If Apple communicated it so clearly why did they change the webpage? All they had to do is post preorder now, deliveries start 24 April, in stores in June. A few seconds at the end of the commercial.

Not every Apple fan is reading tech sites, or looking for press releases. All they see is what's on the news on their tvs, and we all know how terrible all the news media is.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Or, and what is more likely, Apple had always planned this style rollout and people are just spinning it negatively.

Angela A. has repeatedly stated the long lines was something she was looking to get rid of specifically for the apple watch. It's obvious for anyone who's been paying the least bit attention that from initial announcement to execution this is unlike any previous launch for a new category that apple has done in the past. Apple wanted the experience to be different. It knew (or assumed it had) it has a hit in their hands. The problem? Nobody else knew until they could get the product in their own hands. Hence the different approach and different customer experience they were even smart enough to build flexibility into the launch, allowing production to catch up to demand.

People think it's smart to over-produce a product and possibly have to write it off because they have a lot of money? BS. alternatively, Apple would have been raked over the coals even further if they said they would have product available on launch day and had lines out he door with not enough supply. No matter what Apple does people will bitch however I think they did this the right way

And if they did it the usual way that would have been the right way too. Right?

 

[ItsGavinC]

Get this woman out of Apple. She's in way over her head.

You are clueless. She has nothing to do with supply chain or product yields. She is over retail.

If they came to her and said: "we expect demand to be 5 million units but we have only manufactured 2 million," then she would have been in over her head to release them in stores where most people wouldn't be able to get them. How would they know which stores to allocate supply to?

Given the circumstances this is a brilliant move that allows the supply to be used in a uniform fashion. I don't have any problem with people having to order online if the supply is so constrained that it doesn't make sense to have units available in store initially.

 

[ItsGavinC]

She doesn't have the power to change the date - (actually she DID change it to two weeks before).... none available to buy on 4/24....

She IS in charge of the details... she goofed up by not securing some inventory for try-on appointments or for launch day. She could have easily secured 1,000 watches per store - 200,000 watches total, and the remainder could have gone to pre-orders... but I think she thought she'd have stock available after pre-orders. She's never dealt with something that sold out like this before. She should have anticipated, had a back-up plan, but she didn't.

Actually, her backup plan was to remove 'available 4/24' to 'it's coming'

How would 1,000 watches per store help anybody? Most people would be told "sorry, we are out of stock, you will have to order online." Again, not her fault that the production yield is low.

 

[diegogaja]

Your use of common sense and level-headedness is totally inappropriate and out of line for this forum...I'm reporting you to the moderators. LOL

I'm not following how this is Ahrendt's fault? She doesn't control the production of the device; if there were issues that delayed manufacturing and left them with less stock to work with, she's taking the only really logical choice available to her. This also shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention; she stated before that they would be selling the Watch online only for the time-being, she's just now formally acknowledging that they definitively won't be selling the Watch to walk-ins on the 24th.

Frankly, I think this is a refreshing new transparency for Apple when it comes to a product launch that you don't see very often.

 

[photosbynick]

Did you order online? Just curious

Ummmm ordering online is the only way to order!

 

[ItsGavinC]

What a total **** up. The master of logistics Mr Cook fails again. I'm going to start calling him Mr Bean from now on.

LOL. "Fails again?" Hyperbole much? The stock is hovering in high territories. Higher this year than ever before. Apple is moving more products than ever before. The watch orders were a runaway success.

You have a strange definition of "failing."

 

[bawbac]

I'm hearing some bad news .. http://www.businessinsider.com/angela-ahrendts-memo-on-the-apple-watch-launch-2015-4

Nope. Just preparing to be the scapegoat for upcoming bad news on Apple Watch sales.

 

[Popeye206]

Get this woman out of Apple. She's in way over her head.

I seriously don't think it was her decision. I think it all has to do with supply and Apple just does not have enough available to stock stores.

I get the feeling a couple things may be at play here.

One is the huge variety of options with the Apple Watch. Three finished, two sizes and 15 different bands.. that's a lot of SKUs and maybe they just wanted to see what was popular before making thousands of products that is not popular combinations? So, have customers pre-order and I'm sure they know now what's popular and what's not.

The other factor is the manufacturing. I think it's probably a very hard product to manufacture and assemble and therefor build yields are low causing shortages.

 

[bjdraw]

The fact that there is STILL confusion about this launch, even among their own employees, speaks volumes about it.

There is only so much you can do to combat assumptions and denial.

 

[ditzy]

Apparently some people think the opposite of mysogyny is to never speak ill of women as opposed to men simply on account of their gender. Which ironically seems rather sexist.

Not that I personally have anything against Ahrendts.

In a business where the executive was 80% female, if someone said, 'get this guy out of here, he's over his head.' that would be sexist. Vice versa also true.

 

[diegogaja]

None of that is remotely true...

And watches on wrist on the 24th is not a launch? Must be a new definition...

I think that this will go down as a mistake for Apple and maybe land on the head of Angela. This has all the markings of a product rushed to market, with not enough inventory, part constraints, mixed and even contradictory messages. This is not the smooth launches that Apple is known for. The fact that a customer cannot walk into a store and purchase it is a serious problem. The fact that they stated a launch date of 4.24 only to back track since nothing is actually launching anytime soon is a problem.

Love apple and can't wait to get my watch in the mail. But this was one hot mess from a marketing and customer service perspective.

 

[TheBuffather]

Nice bit of mild sexism there.

Shops are a thing of the past. Order it on your phone.

First off, I don't believe that was sexist. I'm tired of people pulling the sexist- or race-card. Stop with that nonsense.

Secondly, you're pretty much right when you say shops are a thing of the past, but the Apple Watch launch is a really horrible example. When you're talking about an expensive electronic device on your wrist, with so many options for color / size combinations, you need to see it in person. I believe retail stores will be here for quite some time.

 

[dljames9]

2 Orders from the same time

I ordered 2 of the stainless watches. One with leather band and one with stainless link. I assume all the stainless link band watches are not available on 4/24. Also, the leather band shows delivery date of 4/24 - 5/8. It no longer shows available to ship 2 weeks so I hope that means it is allocated already. I think it's obvious Apple chose to make certain styles available for the 4/24 date, and others were not intended to be available until later. Maybe they anticipated which models would be the most desired and chose them for the launch date.

 

[bjdraw]

What if they released it a week or two later?

Then another half million people would've got a watch while 2 or 3 million waited another two weeks for theirs. Doubt it would make much of a difference to those who didn't get one on the first day others did.

 

[SHNXX]

Thanks Angela! What a ****ing disaster.

 

[bjdraw]

I ordered 2 of the stainless watches. One with leather band and one with stainless link. I assume all the stainless link band watches are not available on 4/24. Also, the leather band shows delivery date of 4/24 - 5/8.

Exactly, which makes perfect sense. You think that once they realized the Link band wasn't going to be manufactured in time, they should've delay all the other watches?

This is Apple's first piece of jewelry, how good can they possibly be at supply chain management of non-electronics?

 

[TonyC28]

There is only so much you can do to combat assumptions and denial.

That defense of Apple works fine when you're talking about the general public and nerds like us who spend our days on MacRumors. But when they are issuing a memo to their own employees to clarify the launch at this stage of the game I think it indicates a small problem. And I do literally mean a "small"" problem." At the end of the day they are selling millions of these things so the bottom line is all good. However, I do think they took a little hit in the customer experience department.

 

[bjdraw]

That defense of Apple works fine when you're talking about the general public and nerds like us who spend our days on MacRumors. But when they are issuing a memo to their own employees to clarify the launch at this stage of the game I think it indicates a small problem. And I do literally mean a "small"" problem." At the end of the day they are selling millions of these things so the bottom line is all good. However, I do think they took a little hit in the customer experience department.

When I was talking about assumptions, I was talking about Apple store employees. The internal memo was to ensure that the employees stopped making assumptions and telling customers that there would be watches in the store on 4/24.

Perhaps you are right, but how would that be any different from any other big product launch. I know I've had my fair share of frustration because the Apple Store didn't live up to the expectations set by Apple itself -- that being said, the existence of the Apple store is a reason why I buy and recommend Apple products.

 

[StoneJack]

Given the very limited stock, she did best she could. Put all available on demo floor, redirect to online and make as many sales as possible. Maybe if the she could postpone the launch, she could get more units per store. Still, probably it was out of question, since the launch should be in spring. So, its fine, AW production will rump, most orders fulfilled by May (which is two weeks), job done.