5M+ Apple Watch units to be built for launch, 18k gold 'Edition' could be Apple's most expensive pro
Apple and its suppliers are gearing up for the debut of the Apple Watch in April, with the company reportedly ordering between 5 million and 6 million units with prices ranging from $349 to thousands of dollars.
Alleged details on the upcoming Apple Watch launch were reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. It noted that the high-end Apple Watch Edition is "expected" to be among the most expensive products Apple has ever sold.
Specifically, it said that the Apple Watch Edition could exceed the base price of Apple's current high-end, 6-core $3,999 Mac Pro desktop. The premium Apple Watch model will feature 18-karat gold cases in yellow or rose.
On the low-end, Apple has already announced that the Apple Watch Sport will start at $349. That model will feature Ion-X glass, while a step up to the mid-level Apple Watch will get buyers a scratch-resistant sapphire cover. Pricing for the mid-level model is still unknown.
The Journal noted that initial orders for the Apple Watch are not far off from the debut of the iPad in 2010, when Apple sold 7.5 million units in its first six months of availability. The report also indicated that Quanta Computer will be the sole assembler of the new wrist-worn device.
Analyst Rod Hall of J.P. Morgan said in a note to investors last week that he expects the base Apple Watch Sport will account for 95 percent of units sold to consumers.
If Apple truly is building at least 5 million units in preparation for the launch of the Apple Watch, the company would blow away demand seen for competing Android Wear devices that debuted last year. This month, one firm estimated that just 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in the second half of 2014 after their launch.
Alleged details on the upcoming Apple Watch launch were reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. It noted that the high-end Apple Watch Edition is "expected" to be among the most expensive products Apple has ever sold.
Specifically, it said that the Apple Watch Edition could exceed the base price of Apple's current high-end, 6-core $3,999 Mac Pro desktop. The premium Apple Watch model will feature 18-karat gold cases in yellow or rose.
On the low-end, Apple has already announced that the Apple Watch Sport will start at $349. That model will feature Ion-X glass, while a step up to the mid-level Apple Watch will get buyers a scratch-resistant sapphire cover. Pricing for the mid-level model is still unknown.
The Journal noted that initial orders for the Apple Watch are not far off from the debut of the iPad in 2010, when Apple sold 7.5 million units in its first six months of availability. The report also indicated that Quanta Computer will be the sole assembler of the new wrist-worn device.
Analyst Rod Hall of J.P. Morgan said in a note to investors last week that he expects the base Apple Watch Sport will account for 95 percent of units sold to consumers.
If Apple truly is building at least 5 million units in preparation for the launch of the Apple Watch, the company would blow away demand seen for competing Android Wear devices that debuted last year. This month, one firm estimated that just 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in the second half of 2014 after their launch.
Comments
I have no doubt that they will, still, it reads funny...
Probably the same strategy at work here. When it releases at "only" $2,000, people will be impressed at the price, rather than balk, and Apple will win.
I wonder if gold price will go up and Apple gets the blame ...
Probably not the "most expensive ever" unless it's more than the $10,000 that the initial 20th Anniversary Macs sold for in 1997 money. Adjusted for inflation, that would be nearly $15k today.
People always seem to forget the TAM.
The Macintosh IIfx also started at $10,000 in 1990...with no video card.
conspicuous consumption: 2008
conspicuous consumption: 2015
Looks like I'm winning my 15,000,000 unit bet.
bunch of trolls will be getting banned later this year.
Damn it will be nice not having you here for a month.
People always seem to forget the TAM.
The Macintosh IIfx also started at $10,000 in 1990...with no video card.
We bought a IIci, 15 inch monitor and an 11 X 17 printer in 1988... total cost... $26,000... then we had to buy a 10 mb hard drive for back up that cost another $2000.
And gloating over a victory before it's even come to pass? Classy guy.
Probably not the "most expensive ever" unless it's more than the $10,000 that the initial 20th Anniversary Macs sold for in 1997 money. Adjusted for inflation, that would be nearly $15k today.
Read with comprehension.
The OP does not claim that the Apple Watch will be the most expensive Apple product ever. It says that the Watch will be "among the most expensive" and that it "could" exceed the most expensive product in Apple's current product line. Reminding us that Apple offered computer models priced at $10,000 does nothing to falsify the OP.
This product is definitely more inline with the iPad, where many people didn't understand why they would need this when they had a "PC" and an iPhone already.
1) Even if their 5M units initial release specifically stated that was for a weekend or a month with 25M or 50M for a year, you still wouldn't be winning (or losing) anything because this is just a rumour.
2) Who actually took you up on your bet?
1) I think $1000 was the more common assumption, but that's beside the point. Everyone did go back to the drawing board when Apple came out with a $500 iPad, but I think people were foolishly expecting Intel/Mac OS X on a tablet, not ARM/iOS. I'd say that most people on this forum were against my position that ARM/iOS was likely the better way to go in that scenario, and I think that was further complicated because the iPhone was more than $500 retailer and substantially smaller than a tablet that an "iTablet" would have to cost substantially more.
2) We know the aluminium model with a plastic band and GG4 is $349. With an assumption that the only changes to ?Watch Edition are the materials for the casing, display cover, and band, how much would that increase the cost of sapphire over GG4, and 18K gold over aluminium for the casing and band? Meaning, there is no mystery how much the actual internal HW of the device, unlike the iPad before it was announced.
Was that Apple's most expensive product? Perhaps from a starting point, but what about a decked out Mac Pro? Did Apple sell SW that was more expensive or Xserves that were more expensive when configured by Apple? I'd think those would count.
That printer definitely wouldn't count, and neither would that HDD if it's a 3rd-party purchase or external. How much was that Iici by itself above the $6,700 starting price?
When the iPhone was announced many people I know said they couldn't wait to buy one. Each successive version there was similar chatter. I don't know a single person who has said they are interested in the Apple Watch. I hope this product does well.
I'll be the first one you know then. I'll be there on launch day, Apple Pay enabled iPhone in hand
The Macintosh IIfx also started at $10,000 in 1990...with no video card.
Yeah I had one. With a 19 inch Radius colour monitor that cost $5,000!
That printer definitely wouldn't count, and neither would that HDD if it's a 3rd-party purchase or external. How much was that Iici by itself above the $6,700 starting price?
Oh... I was just going off track and talking about prices back in the day... you know, we walked 10 miles to school, up hill both ways etc.
... but, yes, around $6700.
PS - I took him up on his bet.
One more thought: Unless there's some compulsion to show off the latest technogadget bling on one's wrist, what's the rush to be an early adopter? Jony Ives and his team have to be working today on the next generation of watches, to address the glaring shortcomings that are at this very moment popping up with the first iteration of a brand new product. In less than eight years, the market has seen as many different improved versions of the iPhone. So it will go for the watch.