Apple, Which Doesn't Reveal Watch Sales Data, Says Watch Sales Are Great (mashable.com)

Though several companies are struggling to sell their smartwatches, Apple CEO Tim Cook says sales of Apple Watch set a record during the first week of holiday shopping. Cook added that the current quarter is on track to be the best ever for the product. The only problem: The company, which loves to numbers do all the talking, won't disclose how many Apple Watch units were shipped or sold. From a report on Mashable: "During the first week of holiday shopping, our sell-through of Apple Watch was greater than any week in the product's history. And as we expected, we're on track for the best quarter ever for Apple Watch," Cook told Reuters in an email. This is not surprising: The company has never revealed any sales data for the Watch, bundling it with the "other products" category in its earnings reports. There have been quite a few attempts to extrapolate what this means in numbers, but the truth is that any of those attempts could be a few million units wrong either way.

Comments

The Reality Distortion Field.

[Anonymous Coward]

Still working as strong as ever despite the death of Steve Jobs.

Re:The Reality Distortion Field.

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt it. Even Apple fans aren't going to believe that the Watch is selling well, not unless Timmy actually produces some numbers attesting to that fact...which he won't, because Apple is a company that thrives upon secrecy and operating in the shadows these days.

Re:The Reality Distortion Field.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a shareholder and no knowledgeable shareholder thinks of the Apple watch as a big component of the company. They don't disclose numbers not to piss off because it is "immaterial" to the company. That alone says enough to investors... its not a big part and success or failure and the watch won't really affect the "big picture" company.

So no, it won't piss us off. We know what we need to know while at the same time preventing competitor access to the data. An added benefit is watching the media and android fanbois rage that Apple wont give them data so they can "prove" the watch is a failure. The watch may or may not be a failure depending on what expectations are. Anyone who thought the watch was the next iPod, iPhone, or iPad thinks the watch is a failure. Anyone who was looking to see a positive return on investment is happy that it wasn't a total flop. I am more worried about the self driving car investments than the watch, which at least produces cash flow.

Why I own the stock is whole different thing but it boils down to profits... Apple actually makes quite a bit of real, cash profit per $1 share price compared to just about any fortune 500 company and has many many billions in the bank that can be returned to shareholders or invested at any time. That and I bought it a long long time ago and have made a lot of money.

Re:The Reality Distortion Field.

[NatasRevol]

Financially, it is an immaterial part of the company. Just like monitors, printers, routers have been in the past. Not worth the effort to break out.

It's almost like you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

At least you're willing to admit that you're only in it for the cash

Are there other reasons to be in the stock market?
Are you a philanthropist & do it to lose money to others so they're able to retire better?

Re:The Reality Distortion Field.

[NatasRevol]

Sure, but put it into perspective of Apple's overall sales.

2106: $215B total revenues

Apple would have to sell $2B of just smart watches for it to be more than 1% of gross revenues, or a rounding error. Which is bigger than the entire smart watch market.

Does every large company report on every line of sales that's less than 1%? Or do they often just roll it into 'Other' or some larger product line?

Criticizing Apple for doing the same just shows a level of ignorance that is most likely based in blind hatred.

I always thought

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple watch was a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

Now, if the device was truly stand alone, that's one thing, but needing to pair it up with an iPhone makes it far less interesting. As a minimalist, I have no use for a watch or any other jewelry for that matter.

Re:I always thought

[NatasRevol]

You would really suck as busienss.

Apple is the most profitable company in the phone industry (104% profit while at ~20% of sales)
Apple is the most profitable company in the computer industry (~25% profit while at ~5% of sales)

Apple has zero recognition in the 'bread-and-butter' computing. They tried it for a while, couldn't cut it, so they got out. Everyone only wants the cheapest CPU/RAM/storage per $.

So, try to justify from a business point of view why they would move somewhere else, that doesn't involve losing money. Because everything you mentioned is a money losing prospect.

Re:I always thought

[djrobxx]

> Apple watch was a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.
> Now, if the device was truly stand alone, that's one thing, but needing to pair it up with an iPhone makes it far less interesting.

Its primary benefit is reducing the amount of times you need to pull your phone out of your pocket. If you don't care about the phone integration there are a lot of regular watches that do "being a watch" better. I never wore a regular watch, though. I have no need for it.

I bought my Apple Watch primarily because I'm at the gym doing fitness classes a lot. My phone is usually away from me in my gym bag. I would sometimes be unreachable for 1-2 hours at a time. The watch solves that problem for me nicely.

New Apple spx: Donald Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Sales are GREAT! They're YUGE! I don't have exact figures for you, but trust me this is the best product we've ever launched, hands down. We just can't make enough of them. We're selling more of these than we've ever sold anything before.

Shame

[Vlijmen Fileer]

I saw a guy walking once with one. He looked ashamed.

I have a semi-smart watch

[Oswald McWeany]

I have a semi-smart watch. ($25 Martian).

I love it... never wear it though because I never remember to charge it, so in hindsight, perhaps a mistake. My watch battery lasts a week, I can't imagine how old it gets to charge watch every day, no matter how awesome it is. Bad enough charging the phone.

Actually, they gave an indication

[Camembert]

During a keynote Cook showed a slide listing the top revenue generating watch companies - this was based on a table that was published elsewhere.
Cook then showed the total revenue generated by the Apple watch (his was v1) being 2nd only to Rolex, which sells between 500K and 1 Million luxury watches per year.
Well, haters say the Apple Watch is a flop. I don't know, I think I wouldn't mind flopping with that level of revenue...
here is a link with picture of the slide:
http://www.wareable.com/apple/...

Re:Actually, they gave an indication

[David_Hart]

During a keynote Cook showed a slide listing the top revenue generating watch companies - this was based on a table that was published elsewhere.

Cook then showed the total revenue generated by the Apple watch (his was v1) being 2nd only to Rolex, which sells between 500K and 1 Million luxury watches per year.

Well, haters say the Apple Watch is a flop. I don't know, I think I wouldn't mind flopping with that level of revenue...

here is a link with picture of the slide:

http://www.wareable.com/apple/...

Yet again, there is this thing called data that is missing from the slide.

For example, in addition to actual watch sales, they may have included watch apps, accessories, etc. We also don't know if this is actual end user retail sales or if it includes inventory (accounting tricks). We don't know whether this trend continued or if the sales chart looked like a hockey stick after the first year (i.e. high sales for the shiny new product and then a huge drop).

That's the problem with how Apple presents it's financial information. There is a bit of fog that doesn't allow an investor to assess just how well certain product lines are doing. From other articles, I get a sense that most refer to how well Apple suppliers are doing as a gauge rather than just relying on the Apple hype.

Why does it have to more than convenient?

[SuperKendall]

I always thought...Apple watch was a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

You can make toast easily in a pan or an in an oven. A toaster then, is an answer to a problem that doesn't exist.

Why does everything have to be the only possible answer to a problem? The Apple Watch is not the ultimate answer to any one problem - but it is more convenient for a lot of things. It's been really handy for dismissing calls in meetings because I can quickly glance to see if I need to take it, and cover the watch if I want to dismiss it so my phone stays in my pocket. It means my phone is not left on tables as much and is less likely to be forgotten...

It also is handy around the house, I don't have to have my phone with me to see I've got a text message or receive a call. Would I use the watch normally for a phone call? No but in that one case, it's quite handy.

It also does make for a really great fitness device. After all it is fully programmable so you have custom apps for any purpose that you can quickly glance at. Again the phone would serve also but the watch is just much handier.

It also means that I am less tied to a particular form factor of phone. I like to run so if I were just using my phone for tracking I'd be inclined to get a smaller phone so I could strap it on my arm... but since I have the Apple Watch I have the larger size of phone than I might otherwise.

Now, if the device was truly stand alone, that's one thing

The airily named "series 2" includes GPS so you can indeed do some things (like record runs) without a phone. That is a natural evolution but for the moment I'm a lot happier with a watch that easily lasts a 16-20 hour day than I would be with a cell connection I almost never use.

Also of course, around the house all of the Apple Watches are connected via WiFi and so do not need the phone on your person...

Too many flaws on Android smartwatches

[nightfire-unique]

I bought the Huawei watch the day it came out. I was hoping to use it in bars/restaurants to allow me to keep my phone in my pocket, but still get a buzz if an important message (or pagerduty alert) comes in.

It does do this, more or less. But over the past year and a bit, I really hoped some of the shortcomings would be addressed, and they haven't.

The reality is it's laggy, "ok google" doesn't work more than 10-15% of the time, and even when it does, half the time it ignores the query. The speaker isn't used as it should be. It constantly loses bluetooth connection to my device. Wifi handoff is sloppy. There is no brightness control when in ambient mode. No on-watch app control; I do not want every single phone app with a watch counterpart installed!

My dad as the iWatch, and it just works. It's great. It's how it should be.

I've been an Android dev and user since Cupcake, and have no love for Apple, but I have to hand this one to them. They did it correctly, and everyone else failed (either due to hardware issues or Android Wear itself).

If Google doesn't abandon AndroidWear before releasing 2.0, let's hope things get better.

No, they revealed the number

[LynnwoodRooster]

You're just reading the news release wrong.