Apple aims to sell 20 million Apple Watches in 2015

Apple has already sold over a million of Apple Watch via its online stores in different countries. Many analysts expect total shipments of Apple’s smart timepieces to be very high already in the first year, but Apple’s plans are far more ambitious. The company reportedly intends to ship as many as 20 million of its chronometers in 2015.

Last year Apple said it would not disclose initial unit shipments of Apple Watch in a bid not to help its rivals to develop competing products. But while Apple will place Watch in “other” category in its financial statements, the consumer electronics giant has very bold plans for the device. Companies in the Watch supply chain estimate that Apple intends to ship two million smartwatches a month this quarter alone, reports Reuters news-agency.

Apple Watch packs tens of tiny components, many of which are supplied by different companies. One of such suppliers reportedly received orders to equip 15.65 million devices between January and August. Keeping in mind the reports about relatively low production yields of Apple Watch, component orders do not necessarily indicate the amount of finished products. Still, since multiple companies may supply identical components, it is clear that the company wants to build as many devices as possible.

There were indicators that Apple wanted to manufacture as many as 36 million Apple Watch this year before mass production started in the first quarter. Due to yield issues, Apple cut its orders for components.

“When production began ramping up in the first quarter and problems showed up, the guidance was cut,” the source of the news agency is reported to have said. “Since then production has become relatively smooth.”

If the forecast numbers for Apple Watch sales are correct, then the company expects unit shipments of the device to challenge unit sales of iPad. At the same time, the company does not expect Watch to be bought by every iPhone owner. The smartphone will remain Apple’s most popular product.

Apple did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: Apple’s plans concerning its Watch product are rather remarkable. What remains to be seen is whether the company will actually manage to ship around 20 million timepieces this year. The company will relatively easy sell millions of units to its loyal customers in the coming month, but other people usually adopt Apple’s new products rather slowly. At least, this happened to iPhone and iPad in 2007 and 2010, respectively.

 

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