"Apple Watch Had a Disappointing Holiday Quarter"

Hope King writing for CNNMoney:

During the last three months of 2015, Apple shipped about 4.1 million of its smartwatches, according to a new report from IDC (Apple doesn’t publicly disclose its Watch sales).

Most investors and analysts had predicted that Apple would sell at least 5 million — more than the estimated 3.9 million that it shipped in the previous quarter. The holiday season usually gives Apple (AAPL, Tech30) a good boost in sales.

“We’re convinced that the Watch will be one of the top gifts of the holiday,” CEO Tim Cook told analysts back in July.

But Apple shipped just 200,000 more Watches in the last three months of the year than it did during the summer.

Maybe shipping 200,000 more units than the company sold during the summer isn’t a huge jump, but it’s worth remembering that this product is just getting started. Many folks are super skeptical on whether or not they need such a thing. This isn’t a necessity like the iPhone was in 2007, and it’s not something that’s quite understood like the iPad was in 2010.

This is a product that Apple is figuring out just as much as we are. I’m sure internally the company thought certain things, like Digital Touch, would take off only to find out that nobody seems to care. I’m sure there are a lot of UI improvements they’re realizing now that they’ve lived with the product for almost a year. This is a product that reminds me more of Apple TV than anything they’ve come out with in the last 10 years. It’s a product that is likely going to see a lot of adjustments in both hardware, but especially in software. To call this thing “disappointing” after selling 12-15 million of them is absolutely absurd. Samsung, for example, hasn’t even sold a third many units and they’ve been making smart watches for 3-4 years now.

So before you write words like “disappointing”, “flop” or “terrible” in your headline for Apple Watch, realize that many disruptive ideas seemed that way in the very beginning.  If Apple takes care of this product in the same way they’ve done with other products in the past, there’s a lot to look forward to.