Did Apple Ship Watches Differently?

[Angelgrant]

Time will tell...but if the "leaked" early info regarding tracking information is correct...Apple shipped the watches very different than they have the iPhones before them. Let me explain.

When the iPhones were shipped - the nuttier of us (myself included) got our tracking number, figured out which plane it was on, tracked it as it landed in Asia, Anchorage and then Louisville, then our home hub etc. etc. UPS used primarily the Worldwide Expedited Service - but for some they used their Worldwide Save and Worldwide Express services. (We are leaving FedEx out of this for now.)

The new "leaks" are indicating a domestic service - Next Day Air Saver. This service is not an International service. If true, this means that Apple shipped watches as a unit - or containers in a unit - without tracking numbers/labels addressed to your home. Once the watches land in the U.S., they are getting domestic tracking numbers for services such as Next Day Air Saver.

This would go a long way to explaining why we haven't had the pleasure of getting tracking numbers earlier and stalking every UPS plane in the air.

If we start seeing domestic services on our real tracking numbers when we get them - we will know this is how they shipped the early watches.

I do not suggest they will ship them all this way - but that for those that understand the shipping world - this would explain what we are seeing.

If the leaked info is wrong - well - then chalk this up to early watch hysteria - of which I am undeniably a victim.

Cheers!

 

[jmelrose]

OP:

I agree. Yesterday I suggested Apple made a change, and the possible reasons why. What followed was the usual internet (MacRumors forum) lynching.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/21039933/

I like that there are quite a few people on here who are more than happy to tell what will and won't happen based on some set of Apple "rules" that they apparently read but no one else knows about (including Apple). As if the company who came up with the term "Think Different" is going to do the same thing over and over again, regardless of past histories/issues.

Thanks for posting.

 

[sdsvtdriver]

Apple has always staged some units domestically while others were still being made overseas. There were previous launches (iPhone or iPad, i don't remember) where people were upset they didn't get tracking info when others did to find theirs were sitting in storage in the US and shipped out overnight.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Previous iPhone and iPad launches have had tracking start in the US, same as this.

 

[gswilder]

Local Stock

I have gotten some of my launch day iphones from a "local storage facility". I believe they hold them at the UPS hub in Louisville, (or Fedex in Memphis) and ship from there the night before. I live an hour away in Lexington. Mine has gone from processing to delivery at my house in 24 hours. 3 of my iphone 6's did that last fall.

 

[swordfish5736]

Apple has staged initial inventory in launch countries multiple times.

Nothing new here

 

[BrettDS]

With one of the recent iPhone launches my wife's phone originated in China and I could track it as it entered the U.S., but my phone originated in domestically. As the others have said, Apple has at least prestaged some devices in the U.S. For launch day shipping. However, so far all of the reports I've seen for the watch are showing domestic originations, so it may be that Apple has prestaged all of the watches in the U.S., which is a bit different than normal.

Another potential difference is that even for my phone that originated domestically, it was in UPS's hands for several days before it was delivered, even though it was shipped with overnight service. Right now I have tracking numbers for my watches, but they just show that billing info has been received. The watches aren't in UPS's hands yet. Additionally, the ship date listed with the tracking number is 4/23/15, which leads me to believe that apple doesn't intend to give the watches to UPS until Thursday.

I'm sure there is a much lower volume of units at play here which probably allows apple to make some changes to their standard procedures for phone launches.

 

[shandyman]

Apple has staged initial inventory in launch countries multiple times.

Nothing new here

Exactly this. Some launches were mixed, with some stock in the launch country, some from China. Anyone can go back to other threads from Launches and see this.

Think the people that aren't aware of this are ones that just ended up with the China selection.