Apple Watch to be sold at Best Buy on Aug. 7
It was announced Sunday that Apple will be making Apple Watch available at more than 100 Best Buy stores in the U.S. on Aug. 7, making the big box electronics retailer the first major outlet to carry Watch outside of Apple's own stores.
Best Buy will start stocking Watch through its online store and at select locations, with plans to expand to over 300 outlet before the lucrative holiday shopping season. Since launching in April, Apple has limited sales to its own online and brick-and-mortar outlets, international pop-up shops and a few token third-party boutiques.
When Best Buy starts sales, customers will be able to choose from Apple Watch Sport and stainless steel Apple Watch models, as well as official Apple accessories like straps. Solid gold Apple Watch Edition versions, which start at $10,000, are not part of Best Buy's initial Watch offering.
Extending Watch availability to a broader customer base is obviously a key factor to steady sales growth, but early manufacturing hurdles slowed initial production to negatively impact stock on hand. To deal with supply constraints, Apple limited Watch orders to those placed online and only started stocking the wearable on its own shelves in mid-June. Including Apple Stores, Watch is currently available at 680 points of sale.
During Apple's quarterly conference call for the third fiscal quarter of 2015, CEO Tim Cook denied reports of "collapsing" Watch sales, saying post-launch shipments have held steady and actually peaked in June.
"We're convinced that the Watch is going to be one of the top gifts of the holiday season," Cook said.
Best Buy will start stocking Watch through its online store and at select locations, with plans to expand to over 300 outlet before the lucrative holiday shopping season. Since launching in April, Apple has limited sales to its own online and brick-and-mortar outlets, international pop-up shops and a few token third-party boutiques.
When Best Buy starts sales, customers will be able to choose from Apple Watch Sport and stainless steel Apple Watch models, as well as official Apple accessories like straps. Solid gold Apple Watch Edition versions, which start at $10,000, are not part of Best Buy's initial Watch offering.
Extending Watch availability to a broader customer base is obviously a key factor to steady sales growth, but early manufacturing hurdles slowed initial production to negatively impact stock on hand. To deal with supply constraints, Apple limited Watch orders to those placed online and only started stocking the wearable on its own shelves in mid-June. Including Apple Stores, Watch is currently available at 680 points of sale.
During Apple's quarterly conference call for the third fiscal quarter of 2015, CEO Tim Cook denied reports of "collapsing" Watch sales, saying post-launch shipments have held steady and actually peaked in June.
"We're convinced that the Watch is going to be one of the top gifts of the holiday season," Cook said.
Comments
So there's that.
Yeah I wonder if this will shut up the Apple Watch is Doomed™ crowd. My guess is no. They'll just find some other data point to prove its failure.
Can you use ApplePay to pay for it at Best Buy?
Supposedly coming this fall.
This is great news!
Yet another fact to validate the Apple Watch as a viable new Apple product.
Apple staff must be very proud that the watch project which was in the works for so long is finally bearing fruit.
I thought Best Buy was part of the CurrentC consortium?
Can you use ApplePay to pay for it at Best Buy?
Supposedly coming this fall.
Apple should've held back the Apple Watch from Worst Buy until Apple Pay was available.
Disclosure: I'm an "ElitePlus" member.
Headline: Apple desperate for Apple watch sales with Best Buy deal.
Apple can't even sell the Watch at their own stores, so now they're giving it to BB out of sheer desperation.
/s
I hope so. Best buy employees are the worst.
They sell electronics they don't understand.
The droid knockoff losers said the IBM enterprise deal was desperation from Apple.
People buy things at Best Buy? I thought it was an Amazon showroom.
Actually there is one market I see consistently: people who are too poor or don't have papers for bank accounts, so they have to pay in cash. (Marketing term is "unbanked") Same with Wal-Mart.
Just like iPads, next in line will be youtube vides of pimple-faced BestBuy employees smashing Apple Watches in the parking lot. Wait for it...
Yep I knew it wouldn't take long for the snark to show up.
I thought Best Buy was part of the CurrentC consortium?
The 3 year deal is set to expire soon, opening the floodgates for retailers who initially refused ApplePay to finally start using it without fear of the CurrentC contract. That's why Best Buy is offering it "later this year."