Only 22 Percent Of Apple Watch Pre-Orders Shipped During Launch
According to U.S. online commerce market research firm, Slice Intelligence, the launch weekend saw only around a fifth (22 per cent) of U.S. buyers get a delivery from Cupertino. Or 376,000 out of a total of 1.7 million early U.S. orders.
A further 647,000 Apple Watches (ordered by 639,000 U.S. buyers) — so 38 per cent of orders — have yet to be assigned a shipping estimate, according to Slice’s data.
These numbers are pretty underwhelming, even in light of the known issues plaguing the Apple Watch rollout. And they’re especially underwhelming when you consider the bulletproof supply chain acumen previously demonstrated by the company over most of the last decade.
Ironically, Apple Watch is internally (and externally) viewed as Jony Ive’s pet project, with his reputation chiefly on the line for its success or failure. But so far, things aren’t playing out that way. By all accounts, Ive’s team nailed everything it set out to do, and it now looks like Tim Cook might be taking the bigger hit here in terms of personal reputation and legacy.
The wearable seems to live up to its promise in early reviews. It is a conceptual winner. But it’s not getting into the hands of customers quickly enough, and any lost interest due to Apple Watch’s sheer lack of availability will hit the Apple CEO right in his breadbasket. Cook made that bread by wheeling and dealing on the assembly line, remember.
Of course, nobody’s job is actually on the line here. Apple’s bigs are beyond being hugely accountable for temporary hiccups, and we’ll all be better off anyways if Apple simply learns from this experience that future mega-hyped launches ought not to be hindered by administrative indecision, low-volume/low-bid production, and too-ambitious release dates. By now, Apple’s got to know that whatever new device category they decide to spearhead, they’d do well to have a few million examples ready to go on day one.