Apple Watch sales are not as high as expected, apparently

The Apple Watch, when it was launched last month, became the news of the month in technology and analysts, as well as Apple, estimated sales by the number of preorders. That’s not always a good approach to calculate sales, especially when we’re talking about a product like the Apple Watch, which sits on the borderline between fashion accessory and smartphone accessory. Apple Watch sales are good, they’re better than the original iPhone sales in fact. Which means that consumers are finding the Apple Watch appealing and a worthy investment. But the estimations for sales were apparently too high. We’ve previously discussed Apple Watch sales in China, but it’s time to look at the international market too.

Even though the Apple Watch is a first generation gadget, Apple did a very good job with it. There’s a lot of potential in the formerly known as iWatch smartphone accessory, but mark I is actually quite impressive. The Force Touch feature implementation is very good, the battery life is not as bad as we expected it to be and the apps are pretty neat. Nonetheless, the Apple Watch performance is not there yet. The wearable becomes sluggish rather quickly, which can become annoying, especially if you want to save time by not popping your iPhone out of your pocket. But people still like it.

For first-time wearable users, the Apple Watch can rarely leave a bad impression. For those accustomed to Android Wear, it will seem just as good – for a first edition. That brings us to a win-win situation, and Apple Watch sales reflect that. Although the number of units sold was expected to be above 20 million in 2015 by analyst firm KGI Securities, they have now lowered their expectations. According to their estimates and predictions, the number will be half that.

The firm is basing their estimates on an Apple Watch production problem and its consequences. A few weeks ago, we learned that the taptic engine of the Apple Watch took longer than expected to manufacture, which in turn caused shipping time to grow for customers who had ordered the wearable. However, this week, the analysts say they noticed that shipping times for the Apple Watch have decreased, and they say that it wasn’t brought on by a speed-up in the taptic engine manufacturing process. Instead, KGI Securities stated in a memo, intercepted by 9to5Mac, that the shipping estimates have dropped because there aren’t as many orders as predicted.

Apple doesn’t release these numbers until later the year, so the information from the analyst firm could be faulty, which means that you should take it with a grain of salt, as should we. Now even if the analysts at the firm are right, that still means that about 10 million watches will be sold this year, and that’s a great number for Apple‘s first foray into the wearable industry. The Apple Watch is indeed successful and a lot of people are very pleased with it. Even Android “fanbois” as it were, are not as critical as usual, which is a good sign for Apple. We just have to find out if Apple is actually selling that many timepieces.

Expectations of the second generation Apple Watch are definitely high, but Tim Cook has not yet chosen to talk about such a successor. We’re confident there will be one, and it will be better. The Apple Watch is certainly giving Android Wear and smart watch manufacturers like Motorola, Asus, LG, Pebble and many more a run for the money. Do you think the Apple Watch is better than an Android Wear smart watch? Are you happy with either of those options?