Media No Longer Criticizing Apple Watch After Pre-Orders Sell Out
Pre-orders started for the Apple Watch this past Friday. As Macworld reports, the interest in Apple’s new watch was far more than anybody expected.
“All models of Apple Watch quickly sold out when pre-orders began overnight last Friday, but now we have a better idea of which Watches were most popular. According to e-retail research firm Slice Intelligence, 957,000 people in the U.S. bought an Apple Watch on Friday—and many of those people bought two. The space gray Apple Watch Sport with a black Sport band was the bestselling Watch, which reflects anecdotal data we’ve heard from readers and colleagues.”
Before the pre-orders, the media was very skeptical of the Apple Watch, which garnered mixed reviews. CNET, who usually gives anything by Apple at least four-and-a-half stars, only gave the Apple Watch three-and-a-half stars.
“The watch is beautiful and promising — the most ambitious wearable that exists. But in an attempt to do everything in the first generation, the Apple Watch still leaves plenty to be desired. Short battery life compared with other watches and higher prices are the biggest flags for now. But Apple is just setting sail, and it has a long journey ahead.”
Re/Code said that the Apple Watch just isn’t for everyone.
“Not everyone has an iPhone 5 or later, which is required for the watch to work. Not everyone wants her wrist pulsing with notifications, finds animated emojis thrilling or needs to control an Apple TV with her wrist. Smartwatches can sometimes feel like a solution in search of a problem.”
However, now that the Apple Watch has been selling out, the media’s attitude towards the watch has completely turned positive. A quick search on Google News shows nearly all positive and glowing stories about the Apple Watch, whereas there were still a lot of negative stories last week. The Huffington Post, who says the new watch may be Apple’s largest launch ever, still isn’t sure if it will outsell some of Apple’s other products in the long-run.
“While the demand for the device is clearly there, it’s unclear whether Apple will actually be able to ship enough watches to outpace sales of the original iPad and iPhone. When Apple released numbers for those devices, it counted units that were shipped, not just reserved via preorder.”
It’s possible that Apple wants to be sold out of the new watch in order to hype it up more. However, the raw numbers can’t dispute the fact that the Apple Watch is on its way to becoming another success for the Cupertino company.
[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
