On Friday, preorders for Apple Watch began just after midnight PST. And within no time at all, supplies were fading fast.
By early morning, orders of Apple Watch — which officially goes on sale April 24th — were returned with shipping estimates out in June 2015.
Now, we were warned that supplies would be tight, but few expected to see such protracted shipping times within hours of the start to preorders.
“Based on the tremendous interest from people visiting our stores, as well as the number of customers who have gone to the Apple Online Store to mark their favorite Apple Watch ahead of availability, we expect that strong customer demand will exceed our supply at launch,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores, last Thursday. “To provide the best experience and selection to as many customers as we can, we will be taking orders for Apple Watch exclusively online during the initial launch period.”
So, did Apple truly have a monster opening weekend of preorders, or are supplies so limited that even small sales success would be magnified?
We may not get an answer to that question until Apple decides to reveal early sales numbers, possibly as soon as April 27th, the date of Apple’s next quarterly earnings report.
