Roger Fingas
Only about 22 percent — or 376,000 — of U.S. Apple Watch preorders actually shipped between Friday and Sunday during the device's launch weekend, according to estimates produced by research firm Slice Intelligence.
Slice's data comes from analyzing the electronic receipts of some 2 million participating shoppers. In all the firm projects that 1.7 million Apple Watches have been ordered in the U.S. so far, based on recording 10,744 Watch transactions.
Within the projected figure, 547,000 Watches are expected to ship between today and June 11. Dates have allegedly yet to be issued for another 639,000 units. The next large batches should be delivered on May 27 and 28, with potentially over 430,000 arriving on the 27th alone.
Approximately 33 percent of orders are due to ship in April, followed by 28 percent in May, and 1 percent in June. Those figures could change drastically however, given the remaining 38 percent of orders with uncertain delivery windows.
In fact, some buyers have indicated that their delivery dates are being moved up, MacRumors reported on Monday. A few people with June dates have been given updated targets between May 14 and 20, or May 28 and June 10.
Shipping times appear to linked closely to the Watch models involved. Steel models with link bracelets or space black coatings for example appear to be facing four- to six-week delays, pushing them into late May at the earliest.
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
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Malcolm Owen
52 Comments
If my math is correct.. thats no where near the 3 million sold that many are projecting.. umm.. who's correct?
I just want to know what idiots are allowing this company to analyze their receipts.
I ordered one but then later decided I didn't want it after playing around with it at the store a couple different times. It is nice but I just don't think I would use it for anything. My life is so routine these days, I don't have any issues keeping it organized. My schedule is my own. I rarely need to be anywhere at a precise time.
I have to give Slice credit for having the guts to make this call only hours before Apple might announce the actual number that shipped over the weekend. They could lose all credibility or be revealed to be a terrific research firm in about 2 hours....
Here's a data point: This morning, my order status changed from "June" to 3-5 weeks for a 38mm grey/black sport, and 4-6 weeks for a 42mm grey/black sport. The 42mm ordered 4/10 about 8 hours after orders opened; the 38mm 4/11 about 36 hours in. Seems the mentioned "different models shipping at different rates" applies here. 38mm ordered slightly later, but will be shipped slightly sooner.