In Bed With the Apple Watch 2015

In Bed With the Apple Watch 2015

Apple hasn’t offered any estimates of how many watches it expects to sell, but sales could reach 10 million to 20 million units in the first year.

It’s a major success when you consider it is a pure play luxury product that nobody in the world actually needs for any other reason than to just own one. And that is exactly what Apple wants as it moves to establish itself as a luxury brand.By comparison, Apple sold more than 10 million of its new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones in the first weekend they were available in September, and a record total of 74.5 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of last year.

Apple is also officially and instantly the major player in the smartwatch market. Considering 28.1 million smartwatches of all brands will ship worldwide this year means Apple will immediately grab almost 50 percent of the entire market. There were nearly 1 million pre-orders on April 10, the first day orders were accepted, over two million by the end of that week.

For a little bit of perspective on how phenomenal the Watch launch is, Apple shipped only 378,000 iPods during that products first year on the market in 2001.

The iPad did jump out to a fast start with over 7 million shipping its first year in 2010 leaping to 32 million in 2011.

The other twist with the Apple Watch launch that indicates the company is trying to reach an even more affluent customer is the lack of huge lines outside its own stores. Instead people are lining up outside of some of the most exclusive stores in the world.

Since demand has far outstripped the supply, Apple encouraged people to buy online or at one of a very few high-end boutiques such as Colette in Paris.

Bye bye nerds, the Apple Watch is a luxury product. Like any pop star some may have dreamt to be in bed with.