Retailers, JB Hi Fi, Harvey Norman and Dick Smith are set to get a big traffic driver shortly after Apple placed orders for over 5M smart watches.
Analysts believe that the new Apple offering will drive millions of consumers into mass retailers and Apple stores, keen to look what the new smart watch range looks like.
Between five and six million Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition units have been ordered, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Entry-level Sport models will account for around half of the order, while the mid-tier Apple Watch will make up around a third, the source added.
While the Sport model will retail from $A395 the rose or yellow 18-karat gold Edition’s price is expected to run into thousands of dollars, meaning it equates for a smaller share of the order. Apple is said to be installing safes inside its Australian retail stores for the expensive timepieces.
After unveiling the smartwatch at the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last September, chief executive Tim Cook confirmed the wearable would go on sale from April in a conference call in the wake of Apple’s record-breaking financial quarterly results last month.
Strong sales of the larger-screened iPhones resulted in the biggest ever quarterly profit reported by a company, with device sales rising 29.5 per cent in the final three months of 2014 to $74.6 billion (?48 billion), driving net income up from $13.1 billion to $18 billion in the quarter.
Demand for the Apple Watch, the company’s first original product since the iPad in 2010, is also expected to be high. The first iPad shifted around 7.5 million units in the first six months of sale.
Many of the health features, including stress tracking and blood pressure monitoring capabilities, were dropped from the final version of the Watch, the newspaper also reported.
Suppliers failing to meet Apple’s meticulous standards, trouble over governmental regulation and over-complicated ideas led to the shelving of several functions.
Each Watch model will be available in two sizes – 38 mm and 42 mm, with sapphire crystal displays.
