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Apple quietly updates Watch website, removes April 24th availability date

The Apple Watch site as it appears now

Apple has made a small but notable change to the web page for its upcoming wearable device. The page previously featured the tagline “Available 4.24.15,” but that notice has now been replaced with “The Watch is coming.”

The change likely stems from the fact that many users have discovered they will be unable to actually get their devices on launch day due to shipping delays, low stock, or the inability to buy them at an Apple Retail Store on launch day.

The Apple Watch site as it appeared until the evening of April 15th

There’s no reason whatsoever to believe that the launch date has been moved. Instead it can be seen as an acknowledgement by Apple that most shoppers will not be able to get their devices on day one. Users have taken to Twitter to point out how few people will actually be able to get their hands on the device on the 24th.

Earlier tonight KGI published a research note estimating that Apple had sold pre-orders for 2.3 million Apple Watch units, while CEO Tim Cook has said that sales were “great.” Rumors indicated that the Apple Watch was expected to hit speedbumps in production that led to reduced supply, which seemed to manifest during the first night of pre-orders as many models sold out quickly.

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Comments

  1. beyondthetech - 9 years ago

    At least the WATCH images themselves reference the 24th.

  2. Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

    Angela Ahrendts has been a resounding success hasn’t she? If not for this guy’s email to Tim Cook, imagine the lack of communication of her plans, outside of leaked news to tech sites.

    Angela seems to think all of its retail customers stay glued to the news, that she doesn’t need to communicate with them directly. It’s been a complete failure, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people still turning up on launch day around the world… waiting for a fat load of nothing.

    • faythebest - 9 years ago

      I think Angela is still a rookie! She should be replaced, this Apple launch is a complete failure!

    • Alexis Ituarte - 9 years ago

      Really? Since when was she the Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing or Operations? These are the areas I would blame for communication failures on the website or for delays in production.

      • incredibilistic - 9 years ago

        Agreed. There’s plenty of blame to go around. Unless Angela altered the buying process a couple weeks ago the blame falls on Tim Cook, Jony Ive, the marketing team and many others for not providing an effective launch schema.

        If the initial plan was to have several hundred or at least several dozen Watch’s at each Apple Store location then a proper launch date makes sense. But if the plan from the beginning was to offer online-only shopping then yes, the 24th should’ve never been spoken but rather just sticking to a pre-order date. THAT was an actual date people could hang their hat on. Like many others I won’t get my Watch by this time next month, which sucks harder BECAUSE the 24th was the supposed launch date. Had that date never existed I wouldn’t be counting the days from the 24th, rather just counting the days.

        I still think Watch is a huge win for Apple and this little faux pas will soon be forgotten once Watch is in the wild and people are raving about it and posting real-world reviews on YouTube.

        The fact that they pulled the date shows, at the very least, that they’ve learned from their mistake and will do everything they can not to repeat it.

      • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

        @incredibilistic: I think the thing that will really blow this powder keg up though, is if the Watch actually is available to buy at Apple Stores on the 24th of April.

        People who ordered online within minutes of it being possible to do so, are literally going to riot in the streets if some douchebag can just walk into an Apple store 10 days from now and buy one, when the online orderers aren’t getting theirs for a month or two.

        Previous to this, an online order for a new Apple product would come to your house within 24 hours of the same product being available to the people that line up at the stores.

      • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

        Angela Ahrendts wears the blame, because she changed the entire retail methodology for this launch. Other departments communicated the same way they always do. SHE made the change to push people online, and so SHE is ultimately responsible for not following up on the changes to communication.

        Her and obviously Tim Cook because every buck stops with him — but he isn’t a variable in this case.

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      I’m not happy about the launch either but in the first place, most of the f*ck-ups are in the supply chain and in planning and nothing really to do with retail or Angela Ahrendts. In the second place, a letter from an obviously obsessive egomaniac sent to Tim Cook is essentially meaningless as data.

      I can only assume from the intense focussing on Angela Ahrendts, that some form of misogyny, conscious or unconscious is at play here. Especially when you consider that AppleInisder is involved. It’s literally stacked to the ceiling with gamergate types, little boys, and angry old men.

      • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

        With your track record of reasonableness, you can stick your accusations of misogyny right up your clacker. Zero to misogyny in 2.3 seconds. You must be gunning for a prime social justice position on Tumblr. Piss off.

        Misogyny is a horrible thing to accuse someone of, just for being a little critical. I’ll await your apology. If one isn’t forthcoming you should be ashamed of yourself.

        Angela Ahrendts wears the blame, because she changed the entire retail methodology for this launch. Other departments communicated the same way they always do. SHE made the change to push people online, and so SHE is ultimately responsible for not following up on the changes to communication.

        Her and obviously Tim Cook because every buck stops with him — but he isn’t a variable in this case.

        For real though, if you weren’t on the other end of a very large network I would not let you get away with an accusation like that.

      • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

        I’m actually bloody FURIOUS. I can’t get over mollycoddlers like you thinking they’re being good feminists. I didn’t complain about her being put into a position of power, I complained about her performance. The idea isn’t to put women in powerful positions and then expect nothing of them. How is that feminism? Your “poor little princess, leave her alone” attitude is closer to misogyny than anything I said.

        It’s not her first rodeo. She’s a tough lady who gets paid tens of millions of dollars, if you can’t tolerate entirely genderless criticism of her for a failure in her area of responsibility then the problem is YOU.

        You owe me one hell of an apology.

    • Milorad Ivović - 9 years ago

      Now if this report doesn’t acknowledge that it’s Angela’s problem, then what would? People are getting mighty defensive here, but this is her wheelhouse and she hasn’t managed it very well at all.

  3. faythebest - 9 years ago

    So even if I have pre-ordered on time and the shipping time shows between 24/04 – 08/05, I won’t get it in the 24th or within that time frame? This is ridiculous if that’s the case. Apple is not like before, they need to hire professionals.

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      Consider yourself very lucky to even have those dates. I only know three people in Canada besides myself who ordered one, but all three of them and myself ordered them between 12:01 and 12:05, essentially the very first *minutes* it was available. ALL of us have dates ranging from very late MAY to mid JUNE.

      In my case, I ordered within a single MINUTE of availability, and I’m not getting it for a minimum of a MONTH and possibly TWO full months later.

      This is a HUGE f*ckup of the supply chain and planning, although it’s not surprisingly not actually being reported that way by the tech press.

      The only possible explanation(s) besides rank incompetence are:

      – Ordering on demand (essentially not even bothering to make ANY previous to the first day)
      – Apple prioritized the USA over other countries (essentially a calculated, biased, deception)

      • modelsown225 - 9 years ago

        I’m from Vancouver and was able to order 3 watches for the first ship window of 24/4-08/5 right at 12:01. It seems to me, they simply underestimated demand for the preorders.

      • GadgetBen - 9 years ago

        I don’t think that’s true at all. I ordered two in the UK in the first 10 minutes. One for me a one for my gf. Both were given 24-4 delivery dates.

    • ceawubwub - 9 years ago

      I got the 24th as well.

  4. George Pithyou - 9 years ago

    Has anyone’s order status for the Apple Watched changed to “Preparing for Shipping” or has it still been on “Processing items” for those who are also expecting their watch between 24/4 – 8/5.

  5. tvonstieglitz - 9 years ago

    As of now, Apple’s website in Australia is still saying ‘Available 24.4.15’

  6. ralfspettnagel - 9 years ago

    The german website still quotes »Erhältlich ab 24.04.2015«

  7. Im in Hong Kong website says Watch is Coming my status is still processing 4/24 – 5/8

  8. Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

    And the f*ck-ups continue.

  9. stan1028 - 9 years ago

    Well, in Singapore it’s still saying “Available in 2015”. Guess because we don’t have an Apple Retail Store yet.

    • Prithvi - 9 years ago

      I completed my order with 50 seconds of it going live here in the UK. And still the confirmation email read ‘delivers April 24- May 8th’. Can’t believe they would see out THAT quickly. Not pleased…

      • Prithvi - 9 years ago

        Sorry for the typos… blame predictive text… lol

  10. All other websites (Germany, France, UK, etc.) still say 24. April.. so calm down.

  11. Daniel McEleney - 9 years ago

    Why are celebrities, getting FREE watch, while the paying customers are told to wait

    • philboogie - 9 years ago

      Take your pick:

      – because they are being watched
      – because the don’t work on the clock
      – time will tell

  12. Bernhard Prawer - 9 years ago

    Why did Apple remove the Release Date of the Apple Watch on the Apple Website? Does it mean the Release Date is not the 24th of April? Maybe later in June? Who can answer to me? Thanks a lot.

  13. ottoworks - 9 years ago

    Listen to an old man. There are two takeaways that matter. 1) The Watch is selling well. 2) By August, this minor kerfuffle will be in the rearview mirror, and no one will care.

    … So, actually that’s only one takeaway that matters.

    • jupuddles - 9 years ago

      I agree with this guy. I believe this is all a part of their retail strategy, if they’re trying to sell it as a luxury item of course it would make sense for them to create some kind of exclusivity to make it worth it for their loyal customers. I think it’s sort of like a leap of faith, trusting apple at launch for a new product category, and I believe they want to reward customers for staying faithful to them. I mean with literally every iPhone launch they always miscalculate the product demand, or they have trouble with the manufacturing issues.

      It’s a trickle down mentality, because first celebrities get it (apple watch). After that comes the people who preordered it in the rush of 12:01 P.S.T. Then once those are given out then it trickles down to the rest, in small bursts at a time. They probably don’t make a bunch because they aren’t sure if their product will flop, then after that they ramp up production. But they use the early adopters, to continue building hype for the device, because the initial people will show it to their friends and family. It would be akin to them throwing apple employees into the real world. Which will make more want it, but their stock will be so limited, so it will stay exclusive for a period further building hype. As a result of the people who are interested after seeing them and then also having to wait.

      That’s why they are trying to send as many people online as possible, in addition to them experimenting with a new in-store experience. Imagine if people thought they could get them in-store and couldn’t, it could get pretty wild. Also having dummy units in-stores for tryons reduces the amount of inshore theft that could occur with the device, which could become more common with a luxury product of this nature. So honestly I think Angela Ahrendts is doing a great job, and that the situation is playing out exactly as she wanted. Also all of this talk about issues, keeps them in the headlines which is just reinforcing the idea of its exclusivity. It’s really cool too! Because she sticks with the apple style of product release hype, but she adds an extra level luxury with it, displaying apple as an high-end lifestyle brand.

  14. boba1212 - 9 years ago

    Apple may have put a 4/24 date on the product release, but, maybe, just maybe, they did not want to produce x amount of watches until it had a good feel for the demand. I believe they under estimated demand, hence the delays.

  15. Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

    But I have one of their marketing emails that said that Apple Watch would be available on April 24th. This email went out to a lot of people, so how do they quietly take that email back? I’m trying to be fair about this, but this “quiet” change on their website tells me that they’re screwing up. BIG TIME. This makes me think that a lot of us will have our ship dates “quietly” slip into July. August. September. Never. The email I received now definitely qualifies as false advertising.

  16. Drew (@gettysburg11s) - 9 years ago

    Not surprising. Apple probably made less, thinking that there would be less initial demand. They are probably losing sales right now, since no one can get the Apple Watch at the store until June. The pre-order amounts I’ve read about world wide are amazing for a brand new product. So many people want an Apple Watch. My delivery date says June. I think it will be a life changing product for most users, in the same way that the original iPhone was.

    • The pre-order amounts you have read are fictional. It is completely impossible for ANY analysts to tell or even guess at the numbers because the watch is only ordered through Apple, and unless they have access to their sales system they are grasping at straws.

  17. Has anyone realize that it is Apple’s strategy not to include GPS functionality for the first Apple Watch. Their intention is to add new feature each year. Can you imagine replacing your watch year after year with new feature? After finding out it didn’t come with GPS functionality, I forgo this and opted to get Fitbit Surge which was my only reason why I purchase it. The best part, it was over $100 cheaper and hold more charge than Apple Watch by a week span. Sorry Apple for your horrible tactic.

  18. Bella's Shelf - 9 years ago

    Well at least Beyoncé has her beautiful new Apple Watch with a gold band that nobody can get. The same goes for Katy Perry, Drake, Ch well at least Beyoncé has her beautiful new Apple Watch with a gold band that nobody can get. The same goes for Katy Perry, Drake, Pharell, and Lagerfeld!