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Re/code has shared the full video and transcript of Apple senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams speaking with journalist Walt Mossberg at Code Conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes last month. Williams reflected on a number of topics during the half-hour session, ranging from the Apple Watch and wearable technology to running Apple's supply chain and overseeing the development of ResearchKit.

Code-Conference-Jeff-Williams.jpg

Williams also fielded questions from the audience about the changing need for physical storage and processing power on an iPhone, health-related monitoring systems on the Apple Watch, entering new product categories such as the car, vertical integration within Apple and the company's responsibility to advancing technologies and bringing jobs to the United States as a U.S. corporation.


Williams confirmed at the time that native Apple Watch apps will be available this fall through the WatchOS 2 SDK, providing developers with access to the wrist-worn device's Taptic Engine, Digital Crown, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, speaker and microphone. He also said Apple Watch sales are "fantastic," but neglected to provide any specific sales figures beyond saying "demand divided by supply is greater than one."

Article Link: Full Video of Jeff Williams Interview at Code Conference Now Available
 

DanielSw

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2009
400
209
Clearwater, FL
I walked into my Tampa Apple Store yesterday and bought a Sport 42. Love it! Totally worth the wait. Love the taptic notifications and not having to haul my iPone out of my pocket.

Demand over supply greater than one. That's a good way to put it.
 

Benjamin Frost

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May 9, 2015
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London, England
He didn't say that sales of the Apple Watch are 'fantastic'.

He said that the reception had been fantastic, which means absolutely nothing in terms of sales. In fact, if sales really had been fantastic, then we would have heard a number by now from Tim Cook.

As we haven't, it is logical to deduce that sales have been bad. The only question is how bad: Newton bad or Apple TV bad?
 
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bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,542
2,982
Buffalo, NY
He didn't say that sales of the Apple Watch are 'fantastic'.

He said that the reception had been fantastic, which means absolutely nothing in terms of sales. In fact, if sales really had been fantastic, then we would heard a number by now from Tim Cook.

As we haven't, it is logical to deduce that sales have been bad. The only question is how bad: Newton bad or Apple TV bad?

If you compare the numbers to any other smart watch in existence, then the numbers are fantastic. There is no doubt to that, so why are you trying to say that the sales have been bad?

Tim Cook specifically said that Apple would NOT talk about Apple Watch sales. This was over 6 months ago. So, Apple is being true to their word. If Apple DID talk about sales now, would you criticize what Tim Cook said about not talking about sale figures? I bet you would.
 
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Alenore

macrumors 6502
Apr 7, 2013
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If you compare the numbers to any other smart watch in existence, then the numbers are fantastic. There is no doubt to that, so why are you trying to say that the sales have been bad?

Tim Cook specifically said that Apple would NOT talk about Apple Watch sales. This was over 6 months ago. So, Apple is being true to their word. If Apple DID talk about sales now, would you criticize what Tim Cook said about not talking about sale figures? I bet you would.
Unless you have real numbers (and not projections from analysts), then it's as valid to say it's a fiasco as it is to say it's a success.

I still have to see one in the wild in Paris. However I do know a few people who bought one.
 

2457282

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Dec 6, 2012
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"demand divided by supply is greater than one."

Love that response. I can just see members of the audience pulling out their calculator apps to figure out what that means. :D
 

Mr Fusion

macrumors 6502a
May 7, 2007
841
1,061
This interview was painful to listen to. Mossburg's questions range from softballs to the irrelevant, he really should take a moment to prepare some quality talking points before sitting down with industry leaders.

I don't understand the interest in Apple Watch sales numbers. Apple sells products these days primarily on brand power, (as opposed to quality, price or usefulness), so if people are looking to call it a success or failure, it'll take a lot longer to determine that.

The question of diversity continues to embarrass the tech industry. It's partly their fault, partly not. I do believe women and minorities need a "Jackie Robinson" like figure to aspire to, but at the same time our education system continues to fail most students, and our society has lowered the bar to which we aim for.
 

Alumeenium

macrumors regular
May 15, 2013
200
68
Painful, this is what we got, "Shaka when the walls fell"

When what I expected was "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra"
 

johannnn

macrumors 68020
Nov 20, 2009
2,207
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Sweden
Black square, I suspect Flash. Setting the user agent as iOS doesn't help. Feels like year 2005 again.
 

abhibeckert

macrumors 6502
Jun 2, 2007
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Cairns, Australia
He didn't say that sales of the Apple Watch are 'fantastic'.

He said that the reception had been fantastic, which means absolutely nothing in terms of sales. In fact, if sales really had been fantastic, then we would have heard a number by now from Tim Cook.

As we haven't, it is logical to deduce that sales have been bad. The only question is how bad: Newton bad or Apple TV bad?
He started by saying that he's been surprised at how many people are prepared to strap anything at all to their wrist which means sales are far higher than his own internal predictions were and also higher than what their manufacturing process was setup to handle - the number of watches they're selling is limited by how many they can produce.

That is a "fantastic" result if ever there was one.

Since this is a new category, Apple doesn't want any of their competitors to know how many sales there are and they especially don't want them to know the amount of demand specifically for aluminium/steel/gold models. That's the reason why it's being kept secret, not because it's bad news.
 

Benjamin Frost

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He started by saying that he's been surprised at how many people are prepared to strap anything at all to their wrist which means sales are far higher than his own internal predictions were and also higher than what their manufacturing process was setup to handle - the number of watches they're selling is limited by how many they can produce.

That is a "fantastic" result if ever there was one.

Since this is a new category, Apple doesn't want any of their competitors to know how many sales there are and they especially don't want them to know the amount of demand specifically for aluminium/steel/gold models. That's the reason why it's being kept secret, not because it's bad news.

You're making misguided assumptions.

We have no idea what internal predictions are, nor do we know how many watches they have been able to make.

As such, there is no 'fantastic' result to be found, as we have no data whatsoever from Apple; just vague blandishments from Williams. There have been multiple opportunities for Cook to have given us an idea of sales without giving away precise figures. If sales had been strong, it would have been in Apple's interest for Cook to have told us, as it would have benefited the shares positively.

But we have had nothing from Cook since the Apple Watch went on sale in early April. It's therefore reasonable to assume that sales have disappointed, and that the Apple Watch has flopped.
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
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Walt Mossberg always does good stuff.

It is flash (.swf) based on the code.... Youtube doesn't do all videos HTML5 yet (although it's been long enough). plus its not available there anyway....

use Chrome to watch it fails... Black screen on Firefox too on Mac no extentions installed or addons.
 
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Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
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Did any single person on these forums, ever expect anyone at Apple to come on stage and say anything other than the Sales have been greater than even they had hoped for?

This is standard Apple PR stuff, it does not matter how many they sell, they will publicly say they are selling better than they hoped.

I mean, be honest, what else would anyone here ever expect Anyone from Apple to publicly say?
 
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