Apple still hasn’t publicly released sales figures for the Apple Watch, but according to Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly, the wearable device is doing great.
“Demand for Apple Watch has been so strong in the stores and online,” Joly told analysts during the company’s latest earnings call.
In fact, Joly claims heavy demand for Apple products is a major factor in Best Buy’s strong earnings — which beat Wall Street expectations with a reported 3.8 percent rise in domestic sales.
Given that Best Buy only started selling the Apple Watch earlier this month, the device didn’t directly impact the latest quarterly earnings, although Joly is clearly pleased enough with the figures that he spent time discussing them during the call.
Joly says he expects the Apple Watch to be on sale at all 1,050 of Best Buy’s big-box stores by the end of September.
He also says Best Buy plans to update its Apple shop-in-shops at 740 stores, by adding new fixtures and additional display tables for more iPhones, iMacs and iPads. This work is reportedly complete at 350 stores, and will be finished in an extra 170 stores in time for the holidays.
Best Buy will also start selling AppleCare this quarter, as well as testing a new program that will see the retailer become an authorized Apple service provider at 50 stores.
Overall, the news is a definite positive for Best Buy — but it’s also great for Apple. Despite record-high levels of satisfaction for a new Apple device, the Apple Watch has so far been dogged by negative reports claiming everything from rapidly declining user interest to a demand so weak that even Apple’s manufacturers are losing money on the device.
Hopefully Joly’s comments will serve as a correction for some of those rumors.
And maybe help drive up the stock price in the process, by demonstrating that Cupertino is far from a one-trick pony.
Source: Fortune
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
5 responses to “Apple Watch demand is ‘so strong,’ says Best Buy CEO”
I’m not too surprised that sales are decent and very likely rising.
Anecdotally, in Seattle at least, on the streets around the (high tech central) region of South Lake Union, at the upscale Bellevue Square Mall, and Bellevue LA Fitness gym, one will notice NUMEROUS folks wearing Apple Watch, if one cares to notice wrists displaying its distinctive bands, rectangular case with its unique offset digital crown.
Just wait to Christmas Season! What else will the gadget/fitness/fashion fan care for Santa to bring? (Just notice how the Apple Watch is packaged for “presentation”!)
I wouldn’t be surprised if these “poor sales” reports were made up in an attempt to “force” Apple to reveal numbers… Then claim it’s a failure no matter what.
I would expect Apple Watch sales to be strong at Best Buy. They’re comparing Apple Watch sales to the sales of other wearables. We already know they’re killing those numbers. However, I think Apple is wise to let the holiday quarter roll through and stay quiet as long as they can. Side note: I love my Apple Watch. :)
I hope apple never release sales numbers for the watch and also stops releasing sales numbers for all their other products, just to rub it in the faces of douchebag analysts.
That’s true. Amazon releases nothing, and Analysts as well as investors praise them, blindly.