Right...and I recall that Apple has likely sold less than 4 million watches in some older news articles. Again, it's a nice raw number that Apple sold a few million...sure...but as everyone stated before, Apple will sell a few million of anything they release simply because of the large population(s) and the Apple fans. But as a % of society? 5% is pretty sad. Granted it is year 1. But even still, what % of USA folks own a Mac? 15% on a great day...again, millions of units with nice margins but a minority of traditional desktop and laptop computers. iPhones of course are a much higher %.
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Best Buy Accelerating Apple Watch Rollout to All 1,050 Stores Amid Strong Demand
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Right...and I recall that Apple has likely sold less than 4 million watches in some older news articles. Again, it's a nice raw number that Apple sold a few million...sure...but as everyone stated before, Apple will sell a few million of anything they release simply because of the large population(s) and the Apple fans. But as a % of society? 5% is pretty sad. Granted it is year 1. But even still, what % of USA folks own a Mac? 15% on a great day...again, millions of units with nice margins but a minority of traditional desktop and laptop computers. iPhones of course are a much higher %.
We'll see how this all goes over the next year. Regardless, some people are determined to poo-poo the watch no matter what, just because they like to feel that they were "right" all along. It's an ego thing.
Regardless I see no reason why BB would be expanding the Watch to all stores if it wasn't selling. I swear if Tim Cook came out tomorrow and said Apple has sold 20M watches some people here wouldn't believe him and would come up with all sorts of theories as to how they could sell that many when nobody wants them. Because if someone on MR thinks the Watch is stupid that means everyone else does too.
The good news is Best Buy draws people that otherwise wouldn't go to an Apple Store.
The Bad News is unless it's a Best Buy in an affluent major metro city, the demographic of the average Best Buy customer is that of consumers than cannot afford an Apple Watch.
It's a Big Ticket item. If they're at Best Buy they're their to buy a Samsung Widescreen TV, a Refrigerator or XBOX. It's a family centric store.
The Bad News is unless it's a Best Buy in an affluent major metro city, the demographic of the average Best Buy customer is that of consumers than cannot afford an Apple Watch.
It's a Big Ticket item. If they're at Best Buy they're their to buy a Samsung Widescreen TV, a Refrigerator or XBOX. It's a family centric store.
The fact that they expanded their plans to sell the watch from 300 stores to 1050 leads me to believe that it is selling better than Best Buy expected.
I'd say you're overestimating the market at 1%, but I have about as much reason to back that figure up as you do yours. To each their own.
... plans to accelerate support ...
He says "planning" and "accelerating"
Very much like being thrilled about "demand" and "potential"
So many relative words.
I plan to think about getting a divorce. I'm not married yet but I can already plan to think about.
So who is lying ???
The analyst who claim there is no demand for the Apple Watch and that it isn't selling or Apple / Best Buy ?
The analyst who claim there is no demand for the Apple Watch and that it isn't selling or Apple / Best Buy ?
I doubt they care that much. It makes money. Check box.
so why don't they lower the price? Wouldn't that make a more effective fire sale?
Despite Apples investment in creating a special ... very large display area, including new display cases and lighting in everyone of their stores, it's the one area of the store that's dead whenever I've been in the three stores in my major metro city.
Positioned at the front of these very busy stores, people often are forced to stand in the area when waiting for a genius or training appointment.
Waiting there myself for a full 50 minutes, I deliberately looked around observing customers, it was an amazing experience to watch people come and go, walking by the AW display without even glancing at them.
If this is strong demand, perhaps the true sales take place in the alley behind the store
Nah, it's not just "haters" and bandwagoners. I'm all for the basic concept. But I'm in no hurry to jump on a first gen product. I fully expect to be wearing one of these a few years from now.
If this is strong demand, perhaps the true sales take place in the alley behind the store
Or, yanno, online. You might have heard of that?
I poo-poo the watch not because I want to see it fail, but because the effort and resources put into making something this useless should have been used to fix their current product line, both software and hardware. The Mac lineup is stale, iPhones are so hideous they require a case, the Apple TV's been forgotten about, and all devices (especially the iPad) are suffering from a serious lack of quality software. The little details I used to appreciate are no longer looked after. Product lineups are being split to the point they'll need to bring back the gross 5-digit alphanumeric names of the 90s.
Every move Apple has made in the past several years by the CEO bean counter has been to appease shareholders, not customers. You can argue businesses exist to maximize profits... But they're already #1 in the world. When is it enough? When can you take a step back and start caring about your products just a little? The endless pursuit of money will eventually cause any business to fail, because they lose sight of their roots: Building good products. As an Apple enthusiast, THIS is why I'm pissed.
Actually that is fair. Easy to steal. The watches were behind the "locked" shelf/case at both locations but not the bands.
I think with no real info available, we'll have to wait until Apple tells people something.
The category itself has it's issues, as some people do not like to wear watches (For example me) , but may do so when the watch does what the iPhone does now.
Wayyyyy too early to put doom and gloom onto a new product.
You're correct, not enough do. I think the benefit of something like the Apple Watch is it will make health data easy to collect and then down the road, easy to send that data to a physician for analysis (if you opt-in). The idea is to lower the barrier to maintaining health. An example is checking blood sugar levels. A lot of people don't do it or don't do it enough because they don't like the pain of it. Take away the pain and a lot more people will be compliant. That's where the Apple Watch is going, or if it isn't should be going. I see a lot of other uses for people with various diseases - one example is tracking movement in Parkinson's disease.
People don't care but if Apple or Samsung or Microsoft or X company can make it easier for people to care or make caring rewarding enough that people will be motivated, then it's worth pursuing. That's where I see Apple going with this. The health industry is huge (I'm talking legitimate health industry, not whatever fads people follow at the moment) so Apple would be short-sighted to not tap into it.
May I recommend you switch to the PC World to get unpissed?
I am always told they can do and have everything Apple has and more.
I am always told they can do and have everything Apple has and more.
Hey Eric, you are all over the place. You say there is a "fire sale", but there is no evidence of discounting. You agree with another poster that you would never buy one in the future, but then one of your reasons is that it is a first generation product. Are you thinking this through?
When did you see your first iPhone? It was released in mid 2007, but I don't think I saw anyone with one until early 2009. By mid 2009, I owned my first.
I expect the Apple Watch will follow a similar trajectory, where nobody ever sees the first generation, they see someone who owns the second generation, and then they own the third generation.
Although I actually saw an Apple Watch in the wild ~3 months ago. It was the first and last one that I've seen outside an Apple Store... not on a person I knew, just saw it on a stranger across the room in a restaurant.