This morning Apple announced expanded availability of the Apple Watch. The company has not issued any sales figures but did say this in its press release: “The response to Apple Watch has surpassed our expectations in every way.”
What does that mean? Is it typical Apple self-promotion; does it refer to early adopter enthusiasm? Or does it refer to sales that have outstripped expectations?
There is an unusually wide range of sales estimates and projections in the market for the new product. For example Slice Intelligence estimated that through mid-May Apple had sold roughly 2.5 million watches in the US. Slice reported that after an early surge orders were flat. By comparison equities analyst Trip Chowdhry asserted that Apple has sold 7 million watches to date.
Out of the gate, there was a widely variable range of estimates, from a conservative 8 million to a giddy 41 million in year one, globally.
As time has passed, some analysts have lowered their sales projections based some data showing “slowing demand,” like that from Slice. In that camp, KGI research says the year-one number will be just under 15 million units. However Morgan Stanley says that sales will reach nearly 36 million based on evidence of increasing demand.
We’ll find out more definitively (hopefully) in Apple’s next earnings release toward the end of July.
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