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Report: Apple Watch Preorders Almost 1 Million On First Day In the US
An anonymous reader writes The launch of the Apple Watch has got off to a good start, with an estimated 1 million pre-orders in the U.S. on Friday. "According to Slice's Sunday report, which is based on e-receipt data obtained directly from consumers, 957,000 people preordered the Watch on Friday, with 62% purchasing the cheapest variant, the Apple Watch Sport. On average, each buyer ordered 1.3 watches and spent $503.83 per watch."
Obligatory xkcd
I do. I might as well make money off of it * buys AAPL shares*.
Guys, the joke is over! 800,000 fake Apple Watch orders wasn't funny the first time!
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Anyone buying this watch is an idiot. It's like buying a flat bed trailer and a car. And using the flat bed trailer to transport the car everywhere.
You already have a damned smartphone. All the functionality is there without the extra $350 expendature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...!
I'll admit i was originally apprehensive of getting out of bed at all today until i remembered, with the help of my scheduling butler, the arrival of apples newest wristwatch. Perusing my collection of rare finds from Rolex this morning in the yachts liesure room, as I certainly couldnt bare the shame of being seen in public without a standard timepiece, I chose to dress down as I'd be among the city folk today. Stepping off my yacht and into my helicopter, I could hardly contain my anticipation and as soon as I arrived and my driver was upon the tarmac, I made haste toward the perignon and reclined albeit only subtly in the hand stitched leater seating of the Bentley (im told the city people mostly confine themselves to Bentley and i shouldnt wish to casue a stir.) Finally, after what seemed an eternity of film and caviar I arrived at the Apple store, gazed longingly at the line, and tool delivery of my very own Apple watch from my travel liason. And wouldnt you know, theyre quite a steal at only ten thousand dollars.
now ive heard tell of people saying theyre quite a bit more after "tax" but I assure you ive no concept of what that may be in relation to the product. Perhaps some unsavoury orientals have swindled you good folk, and purloined your earned cash for the song of this "tax."
Good people go to bed earlier.
are fancy gadgets, and letting people know they are wearing the latest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JODwetfioWA
I haven't worn a (wrist) watch for decades
When you have to do frequent hand washing (in the last 35 years I have been employed in the meat industry, food industry, childcare and elder care) its not worth the hassle.
Of course I gave up Apple in 1988
Come on, most of these are being snapped up by ebay traders, hoping to restrict the supply to make a profit from the new product.
If I were a watch maker, let alone a person who repaired watches, I'd be cringing. This is like someone putting a tube transistor radio into my car dash. Both unnecessary and anachronistic.
Restore the madness of youth's lechery
It still has to be proven to me that the watch does something valuable. I stopped wearing watches over a decade ago.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
How can all the android Fanboys be Wrong?????
It has to be a conspiracy and made up news, Apple sold only 2 of them.... Yeah.... That will make the fanboys happy...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I can think of several applications I'd have for a smart watch, but I don't think any of the current offerings meet my needs in terms of build quality or battery life. But if millions of people start wearing apple watches, investments into the technology will be made and in a few years there'll be a cheap, high-quality Android watch for me to buy.
So, thank you early adopters.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
I wear a watch daily. Sometimes I like to know what time it is. Not everyone carries a phone with them everywhere they go. Not everyone works in the meat, food or child industries. I have no desire for an Apple watch (especially since they don't make a left-handed one) - or even a digitial watch (I wear a Seiko Big Boss, https://watchpage.wordpress.co...), but I see no denigrate those who do. Hell, I have AAPL stock. I'll be happy if everyone on the planet buys an Apple watch.
Why are they trying to drum up demand when they are obviously overwhelmed with demand, can't make nearly enough of the damned things after 6 months or more of round-the-clock production? Maybe it TAKES a month to make one..
-Okay, Cupertino, we've had a problem here.
-This is Cupertino. Say again please.
-Cupertino, we've had a problem. With the LGBTs being about the 3% of the total population in USA and the pre-orders only 1 million...
Apple has somehow tapped into the lemming instinct.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Smartwatches were the #1 most returned tech item of 2014. Some models were as much as 60% returned! They're absolutely despised by anyone who has used one. I'm one of newegg's product testers and I tested the 2nd generation of Samsung smartwatches. I and everyone gave it a horrible review then I sold it. But this time around, it's Apple fans buying the product. So who will win in this epic battle of Apple false superiority and arrogant smugness versus the strong urge to return their useless, annoying product.
I wear a cheap, waterproof, digital, rubberised, lasts-forever watch that costs an absolute pittance. It shows time and date on the front screen, which is my biggest buying point of them.
Which is NOT why anyone would buy a smartwatch. If all you want is a simple chronometer then buy a simple chronometer. Odds are you have one already. The various new smartwatches are something different. Think of them as a small sensor package combined with a data logger and some basic smartphone features. The use cases are different and the target audience is different. It's like comparing a smartphone to an old basic cell phone. The smartphone is a computer that happens to make phone calls. The old phone is phone and little else. Different devices with overlapping but different use cases.
I have no use at all for Apple's watch but I can see some people who might find it fits their life. I also have no use for a simple watch since there are almost always at least 2-3 clocks within eye shot or easily accessible in my daily life. I honestly cannot fathom why most people would ever need or want to wear a simple wristwatch unless they are doing something like running.
Take a look at the Apple Watch listings on eBay, because that's more than you'll ever see on people's wrists for the rest of your life.
The comments in this thread, I mean.
Seriously - we are talking about new technology - a new gadget to play with. We could be talking about the interface, comparing it to other smart watches, discussing possible future apps that would make sense in this context. But no - it's from Apple, so let's all talk about how we don't want a watch.
Personally I think the success of the watch highly depends on the interface. Other smart watches have been hard to navigate, and I am not entirely sure I believe Apple has cracked the code on the. If they have, this could be a really cool device. If not, I don't think we will see too many generations of it.
-- A good compromise leaves everyone mad. --Calvin and Hobbes
Can I make phone calls with the iWatch? Since I can tell time with my phone, it sounds like a logical use for it.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
how many be turned back like the Samsung's Gears were.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
OK, here's my idea:
There's an accelerometer in the Apple Watch, right? So, I write an app that plays a yodeling sound whenever the watch shakes. Then, when you jerk off, it sounds like this:
https://youtu.be/vQhqikWnQCU?t...
Come on, you know that would be the all-time Apple Watch killer app. I'm a lazy bastard, so I freely give this idea to any of you app devs who want to run with it. Just give me a shout out in the "about" page.
You are welcome on my lawn.
People keep missing the point of these things. These are not practical devices like an iPhone that just happens to also be sleek and fashionable. These are fashion items first and foremost (a universally acceptable jewelry item for both men and women) that also happen to have some clever tech-related features. No one buys an Apple watch so they can tell the time. They're buying it so they can show off something interesting and fashionable on their wrist.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
The younger generation that never knew life without a smartphone, never understood the value of wearing a wristwatch.
Older chronometer watches did nothing but tell time. A useful feature but kind of pointless if you have clocks all around you. Plenty of young people see the value in them, they just don't see the point in wearing one 24/7.
What will really blow your mind is that is now the same individual lining up to pay someone else $500 for the luxury of wearing one. Talk about brand power.
The various smartwatches are NOT the same thing as your old Timex wristwatch. They do a lot more than just tell time. Your argument is akin to comparing a basic flip-phone that just makes phone calls to a modern smartphone. The use cases overlap but they are NOT the same thing and will not be used for the same purposes. These new watches have a sensor package, data logging, pager/smartphone features and more plus of course they can tell time. You may or may not have a use for Apple's watch (I do not) but plenty of people clearly do. Apple's reputation for delivering useful products helps get folks to think about it but if the device isn't actually genuinely useful/interesting and doesn't work well then sales will drop like an anvil.
I think the Apple Watch will sell fairly well if the functionality is there. I don't think it will be as big a blockbuster as the iPad or iPhone but I think enough people will find it interesting/useful enough to be a nice business line for Apple.
$500 for a watch that can't even function a full day?! OMG take my money you apple!
...in this case a million deadspace minutes....
Personally, I don't really need one - it doesn't have enough sports-functions and all the rest (notifications, messages) isn't important to me as I don't sync my work-email, work-calendar with my iPhone.
And my iPhone is too old to be paired with one. But it's an intersting device, nevertheless.
I don't understand the hate towards people who buy one.
"I don't have any music, so I don't need an iPod (or the music-playing capabilites of the iPhone) - so I can't see how anybody else would need such functionality."
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Why in the world would anyone want more than one Apple Watch? I'm fairly certain people aren't buying them for their significant others. Well, most aren't.
Given how many people buy other major electronics to resell on ebay and other sites, how many of these 1 million plus pre-orders do you think are just buying the iWatches to create artificial scarcity and resell at a higher price? And who can't wait a month to get a damn smartwatch? Who pays the marked up reseller price?
Help me understand! I just don't get it!
Like... the smartphone that's in my pocket.
Except more portable and weatherproof. There are plenty of times when a smartphone is too cumbersome or would be damaged. While some people do carry them, exercising with a large smartphone is awkward at best. Good luck swimming with your smartphone. Plenty of other times a watch would be a preferable form factor. A very compact portable sensor package is a useful thing. Most people will be served just fine with a smartphone (I'm one of them) but I can see plenty of use cases for something like a smartwatch.
Relax, dude. Given the estimated US Population the first day of pre-orders doesn't even scratch half a percent of that. I'm more than willing to believe that there is ~ 0.313 - 0.314% of the American Population financially retarded enough to plop down on this first wave piece of shit. Hell, even when the numbers break over 1%, I'll still not be overly worried that the entirety, or even a small majority, of the American Population will throw themselves over the same cliff. Look at the number of people that were engrossed by Honey Boo Boo...between 2 and 3 million viewers. Just because stupid likes to carry a megaphone doesn't mean that they represent anything close to a majority.
Given the state of the American Education system, I fully expect 5 million to drop green on this crap within the first week. It still won't be a good representation of the majority of the American Market. It's not lemmings. It's consumerism by the lowest common denominator. People with more money than sense. Don't think...buy. Keeps the economy going, stupid.
Apple Watch Preorders Almost 1 Million On First Day In the US
957,000 people preordered the Watch on Friday
On average, each buyer ordered 1.3 watches
So did they actually sell 957,000 x 1.3 = 1, 244,100 watches? Because "more than 1 Million watches" would have been a better headline.
I wear a watch daily. Sometimes I like to know what time it is.
I do not wear a watch daily and I almost always know what time it is. As I type this I have 3 clocks within eyesight (computer monitor, phone on my desk and wall clock) and another 6 within 50 feet of where I stand. I have two in my car, one in most rooms I enter, one on most computers, my thermostat and of course my phone. I don't have a problem with anyone wearing a watch but I personally find them uncomfortable and highly redundant. Why would I want to wear a slightly bulky uni-tasking redundant device?
Not everyone carries a phone with them everywhere they go.
True but even when I don't have mine with me I almost always have a clock nearby. Again, nothing against watches but for most people they are a bit anachronistic.
Smartwatches were the #1 most returned tech item of 2014.
If true all that means is that those particular smartwatches were absolute rubbish. And I don't doubt that many of them were bad. Being first to market isn't necessarily an advantage because everyone else gets to learn from your mistakes. There were smartphones before Apple introduced the iPhone but pretty much every meaningful smartphone afterwards is clearly influenced by the iPhone. Just because other companies produced a junk product doesn't mean Apple's will automatically suck. Apple's got a pretty good track record but they have had their share of dud products too. Only time will tell on this one.
But this time around, it's Apple fans buying the product. So who will win in this epic battle of Apple false superiority and arrogant smugness versus the strong urge to return their useless, annoying product.
So you think that the product is crap despite the fact that you've never laid a finger on one and thus couldn't possibly know. Curious argument you have there. Personally I prefer to actually try a device before declaring it to be crap. Maybe it is crap but you sure as hell don't know.
I've got to admit that initially, I was *not* excited by the Apple watch announcement at all. Like a lot of people, I was thinking, "Stupid! Most people don't wear watches anymore. The smartphone is what KILLED them for many of us!" I thought the prices were insanely high for the fancier models, and it's little more than a "remote display/control for the phone" anyway.
I'm also aware of the Android watches that came first, and one of my best friends uses one. It has its good points, but I never felt it was anything I'd use myself.
But as it turns out, Apple's online ordering for the new watch went live on the day of our anniversary, so my wife offered to get me one as a gift. (Frankly, I wasn't willing to stay awake until 3AM to place an order, but the "hype machine" did at least convince me to browse Apple's site before I went to bed, just to see what configurations they had. I mentioned to my wife that if I was going to get one, I'd probably do the space grey with a black sport band -- as it was the only one I thought looked any good without spending crazy prices for the upscale editions.) Turns out she DID stay up until 3AM and ordered that one for me.
So now, as I wait my 4-6 weeks for delivery, I've been doing more research to find out exactly what this thing will and won't be able to do for me. And as the long-term reviews come out from people who got to use one for a week or more, it sounds promising. Unlike the initial reports that the Apple Watch would basically "do nothing but tell the time" when it wasn't paired up with your phone in your pocket? I'm finding out that's not quite so. For starters, it apparently has 2GB of storage in it for music. So you can use it as a music player with a pair of bluetooth earbuds without your phone anywhere around. It's also smart enough to pair to your phone via your wi-fi network, as well as via low power bluetooth. So you can walk around your house or office and the watch will be fully functional, even though your phone was left on your desk or nightstand.
Additionally, reports are coming out that as long as the watch is on a wi-fi network, you can send and receive iMessages on it without the need of a paired phone.
Then there's the fitness tracker aspect of it. My workplace just started a program where everyone gets a free FitBit and there's a website you can log into to compete with co-workers for who walked the most in a day or a week, etc. etc. It's part of the overall "wellness program". Great, but I really dislike my new FitBit. Because it lacks any GPS functionality, it's too "brain dead" to realize when I'm in a car, on the metro, in a plane, etc. etc. -- so any vibrations that happen get counted as steps taken. It can literally be 50% off on counting your steps! The Apple Watch and iPhone combo makes a far more powerful fitness tracker than FitBit.
So yeah, the Apple Watch is definitely not a "need", but simply a "want". And many people may not want it at all. That's fine. But I think I'm forced to rethink my original opinion that this was generally going to be a bad idea for Apple. What it may do is re-kindle the interest in wearing a watch around, because it finally gives people some reasons why they should consider doing so, EVEN THOUGH they carry a smartphone already.
Personally I find the Apple watch really ugly. It's not useful. It's not pretty. Why, I think to myself, would any sane person want such a thing on their wrist?
I therefore expect it to sell well to salespeople, who, in my experience, seem to have a penchant for expensive and ugly cufflinks and tailoring.
I've swum with my last two smartphones.
Umm, why? Seriously why? Unless you get thrown out of a boat I really cannot think of any reason why I would ever consider swimming with my smartphone even if it were waterproof. I'm open minded about reasons but I seriously cannot think of any sensible reason to do this.
Watches are for slaves.
iWatches are for iSlaves.
I decide where I need to be and when, thank you very much.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Let the latest round of wanking begin
How could they release this thing without a technology like Witricity or whole room charging?? It should be able to charge in a room or when you are sitting on the couch and also in the car without having to deliberately place your hand/watch in a specific location.
I mean we have the technology for whole room charging, so why not use it? They have like 100 billion dollars in cash couldn't they have spent a few million and figured out how to put Witricity into the watch? Now even Samsung won't do it until they have Apple does it .. so we have to wait for Apple to get this idea.
Well I know they are reading slashdot cause thats where they got the downfacing IR sensor and vibration messaging idea .. http://ask.slashdot.org/commen... so maybe they will grab this one too.
According to Wikipedia, the widely-known 1.0 SPM constant was first proposed sometime in the mid-late 1800s, usually attributed to PT Barnum, but apparently falsely. Perhaps the murky origins of the constant explain why it has been forgotten by physics, or perhaps it's just that modern commerce has made it much easier to measure with accuracy.
To make it more SI, I propose we switch to Suckers Per Second, and that SPS should be updated from 60 (in the Barnum era) to a lower bound of 395 (ref: Apple Watch, "sport" edition) and upper bound of SBP=17,000.
I'm buying the cheaper one so I can gold plate it myself to upgrade it to $17K version so I can show it off to people who would then believe me to be a vastly superior human being than them. That can be my legacy. Here lies a dude who owned a $17K watch. He is so F'ing cool.
Of course I gave up Apple in 1988
Finally! A tech savvy individual on Slashdot who understands the state of the industry and is able to express a knowledgeable opinion. Everyone else commenting on this whole "Apple Watch" thing seems to be too heavily biased by the having used an Apple product in the last 2 decades. It's refreshing to get an unbiased opinion.
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
Apple's got it so easy. They could make anything and their fans would line up outside on sidewalks for 24 hours to buy it.
"The launch of the Apple Watch has got off to a good start, with an estimated 1 million pre-orders in the U.S. on Friday."
...
And yet, the press had already pre-decided it was a failure
I experimented with it last friday. I thought that it looks and feels quite premium, more so than pictures suggest and more so than other smartwatches I briefly tried. The straps and bracelets are very well thought out. I expect it to inflict real pain on the quartz market, most of the fashion watches you see in malls, also Tissot and quartz Seikos.
For a v1 it is quite impressive but I will wait for v2. Apple is usually interesting in v1 and in v2 they make their products really mature. I do expect extra sensors (they hired people with phds on this subject), like blood sugar sensors. Health will become a killer app in the coming versions, which will drive mass adoption. All in my opinion of course. And there will be interesting competition coming.
While I expect it to kill most but the cheapest quartz watches, I also do expect the apple watch to increase interest in pure mechanical watches. Many young people do not wear a watch. I can see ever more powerful smartwatches to become popular with them, and because of that it wouldn't surprise me it becoming a gateway for mechanical watches to wear during dressed moments for example.
Again all in my opinion.
All in all I found it quite tempting.
I will probs LOL at any hetro male who wears an Apple Watch, unless they are gay, going out on a limb here, but maybe its the new way for gay men to connect, with the awesome heart beat feature and all haha.
When playing with the powered K'nex as a kid, I held the metal bits on the side to guide plugs into sockets b/c you don't have fine motor skills as a kid...and lo and behold I got jolted. While once is an accident, the stupider part was doing it again to confirm what happend and how...twice more. My IQ test around that time was in the 160's, so I don't think it was for lack of brains. Lack of common sense or lacking respect of authority, maybe.
Moral of the story: kids are stupid and will stick stuff in sockets or touch stuff stuck into sockets because they can. Also related: "Don't do it/don't touch it" doesn't work on many a child.