Apple Watch Sold Out in Less Than 6 Hours as Shipping Times Slip on All Models

[Rogifan]

Your reply also same MR 101. Just as tiring.

At least their comments added something to the discussion. And feasible that Apple would want to generate demand. Your Reply, trolling in my books.

I agree that its in Apple's interest to generate Demand for such a new product, and well played by Apple.

What exactly did they add other than the same stupid meme we get after every product launch? Yeah I'm sure Phil Schiller wants no stock available because that really drives sales. I'm sure people can't wait to order something that won't be available for 6 weeks.

 

[harvardboi]

never seem to be fast enough. finally got into the apple store on my iPhone at 2:03 am. i was so excited to see my space grey watch there with an april 24-may 8 ship date and i felt such success. finalized the order and was bummed to see 4-6 weeks in my email order notification. i will wait patiently.

 

[69Mustang]

Or maybe parts, like the rare Sapphire screens, make the watch hard to mass produce, limiting stock.

Occam's razor.

Rare sapphire screens? Please tell me you're joking. Synthetic sapphire is neither rare nor hard to produce. It's tried and true tech for watches.

I have no idea why Apple has shortages of the watch and the MB, but it doesn't look good at all. They're supposed to be a company headed by a top notch supply chain specialist. Yet multiple products get launched with little inventory and filled in later. Is it intentional? I have no idea. If it isn't, then somebody needs to have their ass kicked. I mean stores don't even have demo/display units of the MB. That is piss poor no matter how you look at it.

 

[TXCherokee]

I don't really understand what draws so many people to this forum just to post anything from sarcastic hate thru angry get off my lawn fist shaking.

I especially don't understand why so many are desperately hoping and predicting a flop for this product.

If Apple do well with this, they will raise lots of money to help them make Apple products you do want to buy. No one is making anyone buy the Apple Watch.

Just because YOU don't want one, doesn't mean that the next person who does want one is an idiot.

How DARE you come in here with your logic, and reason, and rational behavior. Are you not aware this is the internet!?

 

[Patriot24]

It always feels good the morning after the pre-order to see everyone trying to explain away success. Was there short supply? Is Apple manipulating everyone? IS IT A CONSPIRACY!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

They sold a crapton of them and the reports of Apple's demise are greatly exaggerated. Read it and weep, haters.

 

[Mac21ND]

So basically that guy failed Marketing 101.

Actually, I have a masters degree in it and work for a prominent tech company.

Whether it's intentional scarcity or not, it all works the same. You can either spin it as "scarcity" marketing, or you can spin it as "crud, we can't make enough faster."

 

[johnnyjibbs]

I have to say I'm glad I preordered when I did. Just seen them in Apple Store Westfield London (which, contrary to earlier rumours has the full set on display, including gold). Looks like I made a good choice going for the Milanese loop SS but the sports watches look better in the flesh and the leather loops look nice (I'll be picking up the blue one when they're eventually available!)

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

People that think Apple is limiting supply to create perceived demand are dummies. That does nothing but irritate customers and lose revenue. Many consumers don't like preordering and won't order if there isn't supply available. Even if Apple did do that, they wouldn't be pushing orders back to August. I don't know how any reasonable person thinks this is an intentional restriction.

Because the alternative is that, having been through this same-shortages-and-shipment delay thing EVERY SINGLE TIME, Apple still can't use it's huge logistical brains and giant cash hoard to better balance initial supply & demand. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

So while one can read haters suggesting Apple is deviantly holding back watches in a warehouse somewhere to fake demand, another could read Apple lovers flipping what can look like a weakness or failure to better estimate demand into a shrewd marketing play with logical underpinnings: Apple is too dumb to better estimate initial demand such they they are sold out in minutes vs. Apple is so smart to flex it's big marketing brains to leverage the scarcity tactic (which, by the way, doesn't have to involve holding back watches that exist at all, but can also be accomplished by making too few, launching to too many markets at the same time, launching too soon rather than buying a little more time to build extra supply, etc)?

If it's as you imply, is Apple dumb for not being able to EVER guess well at initial demand? Of course not. They're smart people. So how does this still happen EVERY SINGLE TIME?

The only way that is compatible with the concept that the scarcity play is not utilized is that real demand always so far outstrips supply that no amount of Apple planning nor no amount of cash spent on manufacturing capacity can ever lead to the availability of more than a few minutes of available supply.

With this Watch, I can somewhat buy that it is hard for even Apple geniuses to make a modestly-accurate demand estimate for a brand new product & product line launch. However, it's the same sequence of events with every iterative (iPhone and iPad) launch too. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

There's no Apple put-down in all that- just answering a post to offer another view of the scarcity marketing tactic in a way that makes Apple look smart (genius), instead of seeming to always lack the ability STILL (after all these years) to better forecast demand such that product delivery is delayed within minutes of going on sale.

 

[sziehr]

So it looks like they launched in to many countries at once. I would not be surprised if they sold a million of these little things in a night.

 

[Rafterman]

Rare sapphire screens? Please tell me you're joking. Synthetic sapphire is neither rare nor hard to produce. It's tried and true tech for watches.

I have no idea why Apple has shortages of the watch and the MB, but it doesn't look good at all. They're supposed to be a company headed by a top notch supply chain specialist. Yet multiple products get launched with little inventory and filled in later. Is it intentional? I have no idea. If it isn't, then somebody needs to have their ass kicked. I mean stores don't even have demo/display units of the MB. That is piss poor no matter how you look at it.

Yes, RARE sapphire screens that are difficult to produce flaw-free and a material where 1/3 of it often gets dumped due to imperfections. There were numerous articles about it over the last year or so.

 

[TXCherokee]

So you have a $600 watch on your wrist, an $850 phone in your pocket ... thieves will notice you're worth a lot of money walking down the street...

just sayin'

And a $600 9mm in a holster with a $25 CHL in my wallet. Just saying....

 

[Rafterman]

It always feels good the morning after the pre-order to see everyone trying to explain away success. Was there short supply? Is Apple manipulating everyone? IS IT A CONSPIRACY!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

They sold a crapton of them and the reports of Apple's demise are greatly exaggerated. Read it and weep, haters.

Why should people accept the most probable answer, when a conspiracy is much more interesting.

 

[Tech198]

conspiracies are always interesting.. particularly when u know that Apple is a popular company.

 

[sziehr]

Because the alternative is that, having been through this same-shortages-and-shipment delay thing EVERY SINGLE TIME, Apple still can't use it's huge logistical brains and giant cash hoard to better balance initial supply & demand. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

So while one can read haters suggesting Apple is deviantly holding back watches in a warehouse somewhere to fake demand, another could read Apple lovers flipping what can look like a weakness or failure to better estimate demand into a shrewd marketing play with logical underpinnings: Apple is too dumb to better estimate initial demand such they they are sold out in minutes vs. Apple is so smart to flex it's big marketing brains to leverage the scarcity tactic (which, by the way, doesn't have to involve holding back watches that exist at all, but can also be accomplished by making too few, launching to too many markets at the same time, launching too soon rather than buying a little more time to build extra supply, etc).

If it's as you imply, is Apple dumb for not being able to EVER guess well at initial demand? Of course not. They're smart people. So how does this still happen EVERY SINGLE TIME?

The only way that is compatible with the concept that the scarcity play is not utilized is that real demand always so far outstrips supply that no amount of Apple planning nor no amount of cash spent on manufacturing capacity can ever lead to the availability of more than a few minutes of available supply.

With this Watch, I can somewhat buy that it is hard to make even a modestly accurate demand estimate for a brand new product & product line launch. However, it's the same sequence of events with every iterative (iPhone and iPad) launch too. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

There's no Apple put-down in all that- just answering a post to offer another view of the scarcity marketing tactic in a way that makes Apple look smart, instead of seeming to always lack the ability STILL (after all these years) to better forecast demand such that product delivery is delayed within minutes of going on sale.

So what you also have to understand is spin up and spin down of each line.
They spool up for a launch but they will never spool up enough to meet demand cause then they would have lines that are harder to spool down. This is why they almost always have a trailing production of the last phone and keep selling it.

This is a new product line so i am not surprised there is a stock out.

Look at the last iPad launch there was almost 0 stock out.

The iPhone last launch out stripped demand as they sold more than they did the previous but a large margin. So they spooled up capacity.

This is a production capacity issue to not get it to large as you update yearly and yet not be to small that you can not meet demand

There is also a great side effect the shortage effect

 

[doelcm82]

Funny, in Australia the stainless steel with classic buckle in both 38mm and 42mm sizes is showing up as 24/4 - 5/8 (4/24 - 5/8 for Americans)

In the US we use mm/dd for our dates, even when they're in a range.

In most of the world dates are represented as dd/mm, whether or not they are in a range.

Apparently in Australia, the first date in the range is dd/mm, and the last date is mm/dd. That must take some getting used to, for both Americans and Europeans.

It's sort of like "fanny" which is such an innocuous word in the US that it probably won't trigger the censors built into the MacRumors comment system.

 

[EvilEvil]

Just walk into NYC Apple store and pick one up if you truly need one.

 

[gramtrax]

What's the saying about suckers and their money? Oh yeah, they bought an Apple Watch.

 

[masotime]

They don't create scarcity, but this has been one of the lamest releases so far: no stock in store, no pickup option, only online and shipping times slipping to june after just a few minutes (or immediately, like on the SB SS one).

You haven't tried queueing up at an Apple Store before midnight for the iPhone launch behind a few hundred scalpers, only for it to grow to a thousand just before the Store opens.

I'm really happy it's all online now.

 

[ScottHammet]

So you have a $600 watch on your wrist, an $850 phone in your pocket ... thieves will notice you're worth a lot of money walking down the street...

just sayin'

They'd do well to also notice the slight bulge on my hip.

 

[Sodner]

The Apple Store App seemed to come up for preorders before the online store - had no issues at 12:01 PDT ordering two watches for April 24 delivery

You do mean the 4/24 to 5/8 delivery window. I don't believe anyone got a "Delivers on 4/24"

 

[Steve121178]

Lack of stock does not indicate strong demand...

Exactly. This is what so many people fail to grasp.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Your reply also same MR 101. Just as tiring.

At least their comments added something to the discussion. And feasible that Apple would want to generate demand. Your Reply, trolling in my books.

I agree that its in Apple's interest to generate Demand for such a new product, and well played by Apple.

It does nothing for the discussion, considering it comes up every time they have a launch. Creating artificial demand by limiting sales goes against business 101 with making money. You can't make money if you hold back stock. You want to sell as much product as possible, thus, making more money.

 

[69Mustang]

Yes, RARE sapphire screens that are difficult to produce flaw-free and a material where 1/3 of it often gets dumped due to imperfections. There were numerous articles about it over the last year or so.

Dude, saying "rare" doesn't make synthetic sapphire rare. I'm pretty sure you're confusing what GTAT was trying to do, with regular sapphire production. GTAT was trying to produce gigantic boules of sapphire at a high volume for large phone screens . They basically scammed Apple just like they scammed other vendors who purchased their furnaces. Even still, GTAT sapphire was rare only in the sense they knew they couldn't make it that large and at a required volume.

Again, sapphire for watches is tried and true tech. Not rare in any way, shape, or form. Been done for ages, damn near perfected for use in watches. It's not the same tech that GTAT was trying to do. No need to romanticize the product.

 

[Cronowerx]

I doubt they truly sold out. Its more likely Apple is holding back supply to create demand.

I tried to pre-order this morning, shipping was sometime in June.. I'm not going to wait that long... Might just pickup this bad boy instead.

#seemslegit

 

[applesith]

Where I’m from I’m guessing thieves are less interested in second hand shoes and jeans, whatever brand they are.
Having the shoes doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have the jeans nearby too. The shoes are not deemed a companion device to my jeans, capeesh?

I think I agree with you. My point was that who cares if you walk around with a $800 phone and $500 watch-- it's dumb to think that makes you a target for thieves.

But you can wear the jeans with the shoes- I do.