Earlier this week, research firm Slice Intelligence reported that cumulative sales of the Apple Watch in the U.S. for the three months amounted to 3 million units. And before that were made public data showing that sales of “Apple” smart watch has fallen by 90% since the launch of new products in April.
Critics could not pass by such predictions, and has already announced the Apple Watch is a flop product. Despite their devastating essay popular, in fact, any conclusions about the device to do too early.
Here’s the thing: even if we assume that estimates of Slice Intelligence is correct and Apple Watch sales for the three months amounted to 3 million, it is by no means a bad result. Any new product that Apple has released since 2007, always compared to the iPhone. But we have to admit: Apple Watch is not a revolutionary device, what was the first iPhone. Watch and do not stand close to him on revolutionary. So why try to evaluate the success of the Apple Watch through the prism of the perfect other device? Although such comparisons are easily understood by the public, they do not reflect the real situation.
Let’s look at the past – at a time when the iPhone didn’t exist even in the mind of Steve jobs – and look at the iPod. At the time, the music player Apple was very popular. In addition to recognition from critics and buyers, he brought the company billions of dollars. How would you treat your iPod, it cannot be denied that this device has changed the rules of the game in the market. However, sales of the first iPod in 2001 were not impressive. They were even lower than Apple Watch.
By the end of 2002, when the iPod was already on the market for 15 months, the cumulative sales of the player has not exceeded 600 000. Believe it or not, but Apple has taken almost two years to sell one million iPods. By the end of 2003, after 27 months after the appearance of the device, Apple has sold only 2 million players. IPod sales began to grow rapidly only in 2004, several years after the launch of the device.
Analysts who are screaming about the failure of Apple Watch, do not consider this aspect, they do not give the product time to conquer the market. Before you write off the gadget from the accounts, you need to take into account several things:
- the device works only with iPhone 5 or above;
- The Apple Watch is only sold in Apple stores;
- immediately after the start of sales there was a shortage of supplies of the Apple Watch;
- Apple Watch is an accessory that costs $350.
Taking this into account, the result in 3 million units seems to be an excellent achievement. Incidentally, Pebble took 2 years to sell one million of its smart watch. Apple managed to surpass this figure in just three months.
Why do people expect that sales of expensive accessory will overtake the sales of this revolutionary product like the iPhone? Why sell 3 million smart hours is considered a failure? Of course, the Apple Watch can’t be called a hit, but because the game has just begun. The product needs time to become more Mature. Buyers need time to begin to consider the device as a possible purchase. It is not excluded that the graph of sales of Apple Watch will be similar to the graph of sales of iPod.
Sure, it’s early to draw any final conclusions about the success or failure of the Apple Watch. Don’t forget that Apple continues to work on the device, and the next generation of “smart” hours of the company will be even better.
In the end, it is important to remember that the Apple Watch is an expensive accessory. Moreover, this watch is a device that has virtually died out after the advent of cell phones and smartphones. And despite this, Apple managed to sell 3 million of these gadgets.
It’s more like a success than a failure of Apple.
