Apple’s quarterly earnings call is set to take place later today, but one set of figures we’re not expecting to get is the initial Apple Watch sales. Apple has already acknowledged this data be hidden in the “other products” category — alongside the iPod, Apple TV, Beats Electronics and accessories division.
However, while Apple is likely to keep quiet on the exact breakdown of Apple Watch sales, it will be possible to get a rough idea of how the company’s debut wearable device is faring by doing the following:
Photo: Quartz
As Quartz notes, over the past four consecutive quarters, revenue from Apple’s “other products” category has fallen by around 6 percent, visible from the above chart. This suggests that, not accounting for the Apple Watch, the category would likely pull in between $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion for the June 2015 quarter. Any spike over this amount is likely to be the Apple Watch.
If users estimate that Apple is making between $500 and $700 per Watch, reflecting the relative popularity of lower-end Apple Watch Sport models over higher-end wearables, then every added $1 billion Apple makes in the “other” category translates to roughly 2 million to 3 million Watches sold.
This isn’t an exact science, but it does mean we should be able to start gauging the approximate popularity of the Apple Watch in its early days.
Don’t get too excited, though: According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, the Apple Watch is unlikely to truly find its audience until 2017. Let’s not forget that the original iPhone sold just 1.39 million units in its first year — around a tenth of what the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus did in their launch weekend.
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.
8 responses to “Here’s where you’ll find Apple Watch sales figures from today’s earnings call”
“If users estimate that Apple is making between $500 and $700 per Watch, reflecting the popularity of the Apple Watch Sport over higher-end models…”
No wonder Apple has so much cash! They’re making between $500 and $700 on a $350 watch! They’ve cracked the ‘money from thin air’ conundrum! It all makes sense now!
Not all Apple Watches are going to be making Apple $350. There are higher-end models, plus extra straps customers are buying. It just makes sense to weight the estimate lower to account for the fact that most people are buying lower-end devices rather than Apple Watch Editions. As noted, though, it’s an estimate.
I think you missed the point. As written, the sentence suggests that Apple is earning $500-$700 from sales of each Apple Watch Sport, which only sells for $350-$400. This is, of course, impossible.
I’ve tweaked the wording to make it a bit clearer in that case.
Ha! Didn’t even notice you were the author. LOL!
You can’t compare iPhones first year to the apple watch. IPhone could have sold so much more if it wasn’t available in just one country on one carrier
And apple was not the household name that it is today. To the average person, they were just an expensive computer company that made ipods
That’s true. But it’s still fair to point out that they were hardly a runaway hit immediately. Everyone realised they were onto something with the smartphone concept they were using, but there have been other great technologies which never achieved a fraction of the success the iPhone has. I’m saying that it’s too early to either praise the Apple Watch as the next big thing, or to damn it as a failure.