It’s no secret that Apple’s launch plan for the Apple Watch hasn’t gone as well as the original iPhone and iPad launches.
Extremely limited supplies have led to long wait times for pre-orders. The lineup of choices is so complex that the company needed to give people weeks to try them on in stores before they were supposed to be available. And the confusing online-only purchase process advertised in Apple’s retail stores didn’t initially disclose that stores won’t have any units in stock on launch day. No part of the process has thrilled potential customers.
Yesterday, Apple’s SVP of Retail Angela Ahrendts sent an internal video memo to employees about the Apple Watch rollout in an attempt to help answer questions and assuage concerns about the many issues plaguing the launch, not the least of which is the lack of a “blockbuster launch” at retail outlets that customers and employees alike have come to expect from Apple. Some people took the video as an admission of guilt by Ahrendts. But although she may share responsibility for some of Apple’s missteps, she isn’t solely or even largely responsible for the issues.
Here’s where I believe things fell apart during this launch…
The Retail-Free Retail Experience
As I mentioned above, Ahrendts does share some of the blame in this situation, but not the bulk of it. She had no control over problems such as supply shortages, and it seems that she has done her best to make lemonade of the lemons she was given.
The two-week try-on period in Apple Retail Stores starting on April 10th gave customers a chance to figure out exactly which models they wanted to buy before placing pre-orders. This has never been done by Apple before, and seemed like a good idea at first. However, the process may only have served to confuse many customers about how they would be able to buy the Apple Watch.
Think about it: customers go into an Apple Store to test out a product. There are devices in the store to try on. On April 24th—the launch date advertised by in-store banners—many of them would naturally show up to get the first units, only to learn that there are none available for purchase.
Of course, it falls to individual retail employees to explain to customers that they cannot buy the device in retail stores during the try-on appointments, but there would certainly be a significant number of people who didn’t get the memo, whether it’s because they tuned out while the Specialist was talking or because their Specialist simply forgot to mention it.
So while Ahrendts may have made some poor choices in how the retail side of the process would work in order to accommodate limited supply, the real problems originated elsewhere.
Misleading Marketing Materials
Those retail banners trumpeting the April 24th release date mentioned above didn’t create themselves. Apple reportedly spent $38 million between its March event and the beginning of April on TV spots, print ads, and other publicity that proclaimed the Apple Watch’s April 24th street date… and very little else.
Were any of those dollars were spent educating interested customers on how to buy one? Did a single ad mention that you wouldn’t be able to purchase your watch at the Apple Store? Was even one line of fine print dedicated to informing customers that they’d need to pre-order online two weeks early if they actually wanted a snowball’s chance of getting a launch day model… or even getting their hands on one before June?
The answer to those questions is a resounding “no,” and it’s this lack of information in marketing materials that is partially to blame for customer confusion surrounding the device’s launch.
Apple’s marketing team should have made sure that ads were clear about the fact that people would need to buy their watches online: “try at our stores, buy with your iPhone.” After all, the whole purpose of marketing is to get people to buy a product. Confounding customers with an opaque sales process doesn’t help achieve that goal.
In what amounted to a tacit admission of this point, Apple quietly removed marketing references to April 24th from its website on April 15th, but by then the damage was done. TV commercials and physical signs were still hyping buyers up for a day of disappointment.
Weak Link in the (Supply) Chain
The supply chain has an especially critical role during a high-profile launch in a brand new product category. When launching the iPhone 6, Apple faced big setbacks in sapphire crystal production that prevented the manufacturing of displays for the smartphone. Even so, the company managed to both fill a large number of pre-orders and have stock available in stores on launch day.
In March, reports started to surface that Apple had cut its 3 million-unit watch order in half due to bottlenecks with LG’s display panel supplies. At the time, many people (myself included) had hoped that Apple was simply planning to rely on other suppliers to round out that order, but as we close in on launch day it has become evident that this was not the case.
KGI estimates that Apple sold 2.3 million watches during the pre-order phase. Had LG been able to fill the initial order of 3 million units, it seems likely that Apple would have been able to comfortably keep up with pre-order demand. However, most models sold out within just hours of going on sale, and some shoppers will now be stuck waiting until June or later to get their April pre-orders.
In order to ensure that as many app developers as possible are able to get their devices on time, Apple has had to resort to offering a special lottery that gives some randomly selected software makers a chance to get an expedited base model. This shouldn’t have been necessary.
Apple has an operations team dedicated to managing the supply chain and attempting to ensure that a situation like this doesn’t occur, but it seems that team was unable to predict or properly adapt to LG’s failure to meet demand.
Top Dog
It can be argued that Tim Cook, as CEO, may take credit for every Apple success and must take blame for every Apple failure. In this case, however, I don’t think Cook should take the blame just because he’s “in charge.”
Before he became Chief Executive, Cook served under Steve Jobs as Chief Operating Officer. He has been hailed as an “operations whiz,” a “genius,” and a “business-operations maestro” by Fortune. He “excelled” at logistics, according to Bloomberg. He is credited with single-handedly reforming Apple’s supply chain in 1998. He was hired away from Compaq exactly for that purpose.
So how on earth did the man who has been praised as a master of the supply chain for his entire career allow such a massive supply chain failure to take place?
We’ll likely never get a straight answer to that question. Unless he changes tact, Cook will read dutifully from his script when investors ask how things could have gone so sideways during next Monday’s earnings call, assuring everyone listening in that previous products have met with some delays as well, and everything will return to normal soon.
It’s true that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus faced supply constraints and shipping delays at launch, but it’s also true that a far greater number of people were waiting to get their midnight pre-orders in for the phone. Apple announced that a record 10 million iPhone units were pre-ordered during the device’s opening weekend. Compare that to the aforementioned 2.3 million Apple Watch pre-orders estimated by KGI, with roughly 85% expected to be the low-end Sport model.
This is the first new product category that Apple has entered since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in 2010, and arguably the most important moment of Cook’s career thus far. Yet what should be a triumphant moment for the world’s most valuable company has instead left it playing defense as a series of embarrassing failures on all fronts culminate in the most lackluster launch Apple has faced in years.
Who Got It Right?
Obviously there’s a lot of blame to go around for how things are playing out with this launch, but it’s important to remember that there are also a lot of people who had nothing to do with these decisions and who are trying their hardest to make the best of the situation.
It could be argued that Apple’s Communications team is also to blame for sending out press releases that contained the April 24th date, but a look at the company’s April 9th press release shows that the PR department was one of the few groups to come close to fully explaining the release process. A March 9th release goes into a bit more detail (emphasis added):
Beginning April 10 in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US, Apple Watch will be available for preview, try-on by appointment at Apple’s retail stores, and available for pre-order through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com). On April 24, Apple Watch will be available online or by reservation in Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers in China and Japan.
Perhaps the sentence about “Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers in China and Japan” could have clarified that the entire statement applied solely to China and Japan, not just the “Authorized Resellers” part, but this is still the closest thing we’ve seen to a full statement on availability.
The people managing the technical side of the Apple Online Store also deserve a reprieve. They were able to get it back up on time for pre-orders (versus an hour late with the iPhone 6), and kept it online for the entire night (though the lighter load may have helped a bit). Even though there wasn’t enough stock to go around, the online store team managed to make the pre-order process as smooth as possible for those who took part.
There’s another group that will likely catch a lot of the backlash for these problems: Apple Store employees. The Specialists and Geniuses at the Apple Store are often the only real exposure customers have to Apple as a company. Those employees were likely just as confused as you regarding in-store stock on launch day and other questions, if Angela Ahrendts’ video is any indication. Cut them some slack; there’s a good chance that they, like you, will still be waiting for their Apple Watches to arrive.
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The two week try-on period was not done before pre-orders. It began the same day as pre-orders on April 10th. Get your facts straight if you want to be a credible journalist.
nobody said it was.
Even the re-worded version isn’t really accurate in terms of the US market. Preorders were pointless within about 6 minutes of them starting.
Pointless? Yes. Not inaccurate though. You can go try on a watch today and pre-order it this afternoon if you want. You still have a chance to try it on before pre-ordering.
Fair enough Mike, your point is taken… My view on it is based on there being precisely no difference between a pre-order and just a regular old order, if the item is unavailable and on back-order.
I see what you’re saying. I actually had the same realization earlier today about pre- and regular orders being essentially the same at this point. Sucky situation for sure.
Really? Did you just write this article, or did those monkeys over at Bloomberg and WSJ help out? Do you even REMEMBER the original iPhone and iPad launches, and how many units were sold in comparison?
Like those products, WATCH is a new genre of product, and Apple needs to be careful in figuring out the demand for it, along with deciding how many resources to place in terms of manufacturing, onto the various models of the device.
While the launch hasn’t been perfect, this is a first for Apple by entering, for all intents and purposes, the fashion and jewellery industries, so for a newcomer to the party, I think they’ve gotten off to an amazing start thus far!
Not to mention they outsold a year’s worth of all Android Wear devices in a SINGLE DAY of pre-orders.
Yeah, way to fuck it up, Apple…?
If you look at how things played out with LG you’ll see that Apple actually had a number in mind that would have served pre-order customers quite well. Unfortunately, the operations team seems to have failed to account for the fact that (as happened with the iPhone 6), supplier issues may lead to delays. They didn’t have a contingency plan and as a result they failed to meet demand.
The number of original iPhone units sold in comparison to the watch is irrelevant. This isn’t that era. Apple knows exactly what it’s getting into and has had plenty of experience in the tech industry to know that suppliers can run into problems and royally screw up a launch. They should have planned for it and they clearly didn’t.
No, Apple, being a tech company yes, didn’t have a CLUE what they were getting into joining the world of fashion and jewellery. While they are masters at manufacturing logistics, they didn’t really have any solid information about how the response to the watch might be, they went based on research and focus groups (likely), and tried to guesstimate the demand. From what we’ve seen, the demand has been much higher than anyone expected.
Btw, the amount of original iPhone units sold IS relevant; iPhone entered an extremely crowded market of existing dumb and smart phones during that time, an industry Apple had no experience in, just like the present day with the watch.
I totally agree with everything you said!
I would add that as a new product category, I appreciate the fact that I could stroll (appointment or not in my area) into the local Apple store, physically look and touch, try on, ask questions and get answers – especially about which size watch I wanted – prior to ordering one. Quite honestly, I don’t NEED an Apple watch, but as part of the Apple eco-system, I wanted one.
If Apple did not provide this 2 week period, I would have been forced to order two of the Space Black watches – in both the 38 mm and 42 mm size – to figure out which one I wanted and then had to return the unwanted watch. This might have precluded another person getting the smaller (as it turns out) watch as quickly.
It’s a new process and I’m not disappointed in having a July ship date. I appreciate Apple’s trying something new.
As always – YMMV!
@Edison Wrzosek
You’re embarrassing yourself. Not the first time…
Give me one example of how I’m embarrassing myself, otherwise, don’t comment.
@Edison Wrzosek – “…otherwise don’t comment” is a good example.
@SonsofAres: Your example, is not a good example, and you made none of your own…
From my standpoint as a consumer, it made no sense to start the try-on experience in the Stores only after online ordering went live. You either had to order a watch never having seen it or wait for many weeks to get one. This is not a good position in which to put your customers.
I definitely agree with you. They should have let people try it on and then opened up pre-orders, but I am sure there is a reason behind why they didn’t do that.
You think there’s a reason?!!!
But if the supply is constrained you’re going to be waiting anyway. Personally if I was ordering one I would have waited until I could try it on first. It’s not like people’s lives will come to a screeching halt if they don’t have the watch on the 24th.
i think the idea was that people would either know what they wanted and order it at midnight, or go into the stores later that day to get a feel for the different models, then go home and place an order. of course, this process doesn’t work out very well because limited supply means people who go to try-on appointments are going to get stuck with very late shipping dates. in my opinion apple didnt think it through.
Agree.
Apple has likely sold over 2 million Apple Watches in a matter of days. The original iPhone took 2 months to pass the one million mark.
The original iPhone was sold a decade ago….in tech terms these time periods shouldnt even be compared. Might as well compare it to the atari at this point. In this era it is sales/media blitz or bust.
If this level of demand and day one sales figures are what you consider “failure”, I’d love to fail like this all the time.
Not having any product in the store on launch day is what I consider “failure.”
Who cares about the physical stores nowadays? It’s an accessory for a device meant to be connected 24/7 (iPhone) and you want to buy in a physical store? They should never put products in the stores at launch, the internet Apple Store is much more efficient.
Go to Best Buy or your nearest junk box store. you can buy any of the competitor’s cruddy wearables right now no waiting and could have any time over the past 2+ years. But you didn’t. See my point?
Wow, if you consider that a failure, WTF would you consider a success? 10m units? Seriously, you’re not thinking straight.
@Mike Beasley, I’m with you. It seems like fanboys would rather blindly support everything Apple does and never take a critical look at their business practices. Unless as a fan you are deluded enough to think that Apple has no room for improvement, why wouldn’t you want to point out flaws or insights that can help them be a better company. Right now, the media seems to equates Apple with Jesus Christ.
Apple is a great company, AND they are making many mistakes. Both things can be simultaneously true. Sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting “blah blah blah” doesn’t make it any less true, and it certainly doesn’t help Apple correct course.
@Edison Wrzosek – “…WTF would you consider a success..?” Having a physical product on the specified launch day would certainly be successful.
They do have a physical product in stores, ones you can see, ones you can test, ones you can try on. They’ve simply moved the purchase to online, and so many people have ordered, they’ve run out of stock, this implies a complete success, and your argument has no merit, just like all the other naysayers about the WATCH.
Edison, I know it’s tough seeing people criticize Apple, but please, just this one time, try to understand the situation. You claim there is stock in store. That is wrong. There is no stock. Try-on models are not stock. They cannot be sold. The only available stock sold out long before the product officially went on sale. Sales weren’t even THAT high. There weren’t 10 million orders. There were 2.3 million.
Being unable to handle 2.3 million orders because your supply chain broke down and you weren’t prepared with an alternate plan is a failure. Not actually having any product available for sale in your own retail outlets on a highly-publicized launch date is a failure. The Apple Watch launch is, objectively, a failure.
Only if you don’t understand the difference between objectively and subjectively.
Did you post your own forecast for how many watches would be ordered, and what the split between models would be? that what Apple had to do.
If so, please point us to that data so we can laugh and point at just how wrong you are when the real figures come out.
This piece sums up all of what we know fairly well, along with providing some good insights here and there. However, this statement: “The two-week try-on period in Apple Retail Stores gave customers a chance to figure out exactly which models they wanted to buy before placing pre-orders on April 10th.”
When was this ever true? The only people who got try-ons before preorders were those in time zones well ahead of PST whose preorders were closer to April 11th (for them) than the 10th.
the date was supposed to be elsewhere in the sentence but through various rewrites of that paragraph it got stuck in the wrong place. i moved it now so it makes more sense.
“The two-week try-on period in Apple Retail Stores gave customers a chance to figure out exactly which models they wanted to buy before placing pre-orders on April 10th.”
This is flat WRONG – appointments for try-ons didn’t open until April 10, and the watch (all models) was sold out BEFORE the first retail store even opened.
that sentence was worded poorly. i reworded it so it makes more sense.
PS – This interminably slow launch is insane – 9/9/14 “Intro”; 3/9/15 “Re-Intro”; 4/9/15 “Pre-Orders” that sell out in less than six hours; 4/24/15 “Shipments” – if you managed to get an order in within the first three minutes of sales (I have a 12:04 space gray sport not coming 4/24 as of this moment); 8/?/15 for the black stainless steel (and some Editions) has to have Jobs spinning 3600rpm in his grave. Nearly ONE YEAR to launch a product.
Really? How exactly do you define blockbuster, Mike? Apple sold more watches in the first day of pre-orders than Google’s partners did in the entire year before. As for your other points, I do agree. Good article.
Out performing a failure doesnt make you a success…..#lifelesson
The term “blockbuster” is a direct quote from Angela Ahrendts who said in a video last night that the Apple Watch will not get a “blockbuster launch.” This of course refers to the typical Apple launch process that takes place at retail stores for every product except this one.
Boy, you should rewrite this piece. Here’s only one hint:
“As I mentioned above, Ahrendts does share some of the blame in this situation, but not the bulk of it.”
True only one sentence and a subheading before it was:
“But although she may share responsibility for some of Apple’s missteps, she isn’t solely or even largely responsible for the issues.”
Do you think your readers have concentration problems? Or why do you repeat yourself in a manner of seconds? I guess you were stressed when writing this article. Go ahead and rewrite it.
lol
keren
I lost count of the number of places that I saw announcements that the Watch would *only* be available for pre-order via online ordering.
Before the 10th? Good for you. Did you see that in-store, or just on the tech news sites? Sites like 9to5mac would shit diamonds if they had a hundred million visitors, so it’s safe to say MOST people want to get their Apple-related communication from Apple’s website, which still featured the 4.24.15 date on the front page until about a week after pre-order date.
By then of course, it’s too late for most customers, because the window has closed.
I think it’s honestly a bit worse than that. I don’t get why pre-orders started *before* try ons occurred. Basically, without an idea of what this thing feels like, you are asking people to pre-order sight unseen, which is a guarantee some people will be disappointed.
I originally thought the Space Black Link Bracelet would be what I wanted but the Milanese actually ended up being my favorite. By the time I figured that out? June! :(
In other words, you were risk averse which didn’t allow you to capitalize on timing. Risk = reward. You played it safe on the front end, which cost you on the back end. There’s a lesson in this.
The strategy for you could have been:
Take a risk and order the black link bracelet, which would have gotten you the watch sooner. Between then and now, you could have checked out the bands and evaluated your options, with a watch on the way. Worst case scenario, you receive the watch you ordered this Friday or next week and at least have the option to keep it…or return it to get what you want which would still have you waiting until June.
Don’t tell people how to use their hard-earned money, especially if you’re doing it so that you can defend a trillion-dollar company. That’s a heinous transgression against your fellow man.
Also, it’s people like you who drive the price of Apple products up, by buying 12 different things, and returning them within the 14 day exchange window. Do you think that’s actually free? We all pay for that kind of selfishness.
It’s a far more respectable gesture to decide what you want first, and then buy only that — instead of giving a huge F-you to everyone by adding to Apple’s pile of refurb stock.
You sir are a clown. You must be an absolute pleasure to shop with!! Hey Apple, you listening? Push that fear, that risk, into potential buyers! This plonker thinks it’s the done thing.
This mentality makes sense – if you’re someone who NEEDS TO HAVE AN APPLE WATCH RIGHT NOW AND WILL GO MAD IF THEY HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL JUNE OMG.
I agree with the original premise of this article, that the launch has been botched from a sales and business perspective. But I don’t really get why it’s such a big deal from a customer perspective. The damn thing did”t exist five minutes ago, and now people are going mental because they can’t have one before June?!?!
Love that this guy classes a year as ‘5 minutes.’
THIS. This is the issue.
I feel like I wrote about a quarter of this mess of self-contradiction in comments on previous articles.
Specifically, the good quarter dealing with Ahrendts responsibility, and the completely botched customer communication.
Meh. This will get resolved sooner than later. It’s little more than short-term news.
In the meantime, over-selling estimates is a good problem to have, as is having customers with cash-in-hand wanting your product. As long as they get production caught up in the next 30 days, few customers will cool off to the point that they decide not to buy.
Meh, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it… it’s just a wrinkle… no need to get everything right, people will be forgiving, etc etc…. Apple is what Apple is today, because Steve Jobs was NOTHING LIKE THAT.
THIS.
The device by design can’t have a blockbuster launch – being personal it needs for most people (barring apple fan contingent, developers etc) to have a try on.
And that takes time, space, appointments that are finite. So ta a soft roll out.
Explain how they could have a blockbuster launch and suddenly be able to do 3-4x the number of try out appointments? Or suddenly increase their inventory so they can have them at every store?
Apple don’t want to have excess tooling, personnel just to make enough watches for launch day weekend and launch month sales – they’re doing what they’ve done before – be supply constrained and slowly deal with the back log.
Apple seems to enjoy demand outstripping supply above the other way round (eg write downs of excess inventory anyone? Microsoft, Blackberry, Samsung?)
The contortions made to try and Make negative a a v1 product in a new category getting estimated >1 million sales.
Personal opinions of the writer written as facts. Shame you can’t claim your opinions Mike, rather than insinuate the opinions are facts.
I’m as big a fan as the next guy, but there’s a serious problem when people can’t acknowledge that mistakes have been made. That’s a level of denial that isn’t healthy.
Here is a fact: there will be no Apple Watches in Apple Stores on launch day. That is a failure. It’s indefensible. Try-on appointments are not required before purchase by any stretch of the imagination. Limited appointments aren’t the issue. The issue is that Apple didn’t plan ahead for possible supply chain bottlenecks.
Pretending this launch was successful and that Apple intentionally limited supply in order to accommodate a limited number of appointments is the real contortion here.
And if you direct your attention to the tags section, you’ll see that this post has been labeled as “opinion” since it went live.
Although, there is the conspiracy theory that they really DID limit supply, in order to create a sense of exclusivity. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but the rationale is that they are really gunning at generating a sense of prestige and scarcity around a luxury item. They may love the fact that people are in a frenzy at having to wait until June. They may even love the fact that the main criticism of the Watch, at this point, is that there aren’t enough to go around….
Think about it: this leaves a general impression that EVERYONE wants an Apple Watch, and that people are upset at having to wait 1-2 months to get one. There is much less discussion around the question of IF or WHY anyone wants a Watch in the first place.
I think this article should be titled as “opinion”, as it really is pretty harsh. I haven’t felt many of the things expressed above. We all know Tim is a supply chain guru, and the WATCH, with all of its customizability, truly is one of the greatest supply chain challenges ever tackled. Steve made computers and eventually consumer electronics into art, Tim Cook makes supply chains into art, and this is his greatest masterpiece yet.
Customizability isn’t a problem. A handful of interchangeable bands and watches need to be produced then paired up. That doesn’t cause production issues. High display panel failure rates do. This is hardly a supply chain masterpiece. It’s a debacle. Also, this article has been tagged as “opinion” since it went online.
I would just like to put my two cents in and say the author’s entire premise that the watch launch is an epic fail is utter nonsense. And my opinion is every bit as credible as the author’s since neither is backed up by actual facts, just biased opinions.
So you’re saying that having zero units in store for sale on launch day is considered a success? That isn’t a failure, in your opinion?
Not when they have a couple million online pre-orders to fulfill. Not a failure AT ALL. Maybe if you are part of the irrational instant gratification crowd. Care to predict how many of these confused and disappointed potential customers you mention will opt for an Android Wear watch instead, just because they can’t walk into an Apple store and walk out with a watch? Hmmm?
You can’t debate with some Apple fanboys.
They clearly lack the understanding that most consumers expect a new product on the advertised launch day.
Not all consumers are perusing Apple fanboy sites with the knowledge that the apple watch is online only.
And you completely discredit yourself as a fool by labelling Apple users as “fanboy’s” and going on to bash what they perceive as consumer expectations.
Its all very simple – Apple underestimated demand, which is clearly good news over the longer term, but a mess for the coming days. So called “analysts” who survey 1000 teenagers concluded that the uptake will be dismal. With this being very new product, Apple marketing clearly had to rely on some of these reports and went conservative on orders. I think this article is a misguided shot at Apple marketing team. Just because you cannot storm the Apple store on Friday and wait for 10 hours in line does not mean it is not a proper launch. Thus far, I would not call the launch “soft” either – Apple Watch has been shown in major fashion magazines, shows, by celebrities and sportsmen. Interested customers had an opportunity to try them on. I actually think launching Watch in retail store would be a complete failure – the try on appointment is 15 mins long – imagine giving every customer 15 mins to buy a Watch. That’s only 4 customers an hour for each sales person Keep in mind that there are tons of other products being sold, so they cannot dedicate the whole store to Watch sales stations. Do the math and you would quickly realize that most people in line would just go home empty handed anyway.
That last sentence highlights the entire issue. Apple doesn’t have enough stock to put on its own store shelves. People would go home empty-handed on launch day. That’s a big supply chain failure. And no, it’s not because Apple relied on bad reports. As I said in this article, supply chain failures that Apple had failed to properly plan for resulted in the company cutting its order in half. THAT is where the issues comes from.
Also, there is absolutely no reason to believe that customers would be forced to participate in a 15-minute try-on session before buying. Try-ons are by appointment only. You can’t walk in off the street to try the watch out. Anyone standing in line to buy would be there to buy and nothing else. Walk in, pay, walk out.
So are you ready to call for Tim Cook to be fired over this? When will you make the call?
Literally no one said that
I think you’re missing one point, though, which is that people’s expectations when buying a watch are different to buying a phone or computer. People EXPECT to try it on, touch it – it’s something you’re going to wear, on your body, every day. Who walks into a shoe store, grabs shoes and walks out in 2 minutes? I think Odys makes a very good point – a traditional store launch would have turned into a FAR greater logistical disaster than they have on their hands here. Most people just would not be satisfied with not being allowed to try on the watch during the purchase process.
I agree with you that the launch hasn’t been handled particularly well – I’m just wondering if it would have been worse if they had used a traditional launch process. I’m picturing huge lines of dissatisfied customers being interviewed on NBC and saying they will never buy Apple again after being made to stand in line for 12 hours and going away empty-handed.
“Literally no one said that”
You obviously have an axe to grind with Apple over this. You have spent lots of time responding to those who disagree with your assertion. If you are that upset then you must believe someone should pay for this epic fail. I am simply asking you who should lose their job. Since Tim Cook has always been touted as a supply chain genius shouldn’t you be calling for his head on a platter? Why are you not calling for his resignation or firing? Or is it, as some of us suspect, that you are simply stirring the pot to get more responses?
Time to back up your ranting. Who pays for this?
Try-ons are by appointment only. You can’t walk in off the street to try the watch out.
Not true, there have been walk-in try-ons since April 10. Wait time was based on availability of retail personnel.
This article is completely pointless. There is nothing wrong with the roll out of the Apple Watch, and Apple never expected this thing to have iPhone numbers. Hopefully this isn’t the author’s day job. Jesus.
There will be no Apple Watches in stores on Friday and you’re saying there’s nothing wrong here? There is absolutely a problem with that rollout strategy. Apple didn’t expect this to have iPhone numbers, sure, but not having enough units to even put them in stores on launch day is really, really bad.
Telling people to make appointments to try on before you buy and sending them home without a sold watch but making them wait another one or two months because online sales started the same day and (of course) sold out in a few hours and everyone who followed Apples advice and tried it on before because it’s so personal has to get back in line is pointless.
Every alternative strategy has potential problems, though.
1. In-store launch would create huge lines and logistical problems due to most people expecting to be able to try a watch on before buying it. Buying a watch is like buying jewellery or clothing, not like buying an iPad.
2. In-store try-on appointments BEFORE pre-ordering availability would have caused loss of buzz around the launch – by the time it was launched, it could feel like an anti-climax.
3. No in-store try-on appointments at all would have forced everyone to buy a watch before trying it on, rather than just the Apple fans who have to get one right away and are willing to order sight unseen.
The more I think about it, the more I think they were caught between a rock and a hard place on this one. The biggest failure was maybe not having enough units ready for launch, but perhaps they were very conservative about how many they expected to ship this quickly. (If so, that’s a lack of judgment – I think most analysts predicted they would sell at least 2 million immediately). Having said that, I probably would have gone with Option 2 above, and sacrifice buzz for customer satisfaction. Also, this would allow them to better estimate numbers in order to anticipate supply levels.
But let’s be honest, the only people upset about this are Apple fans who want to have a Watch right away. I’m quite happy to wait until June, and to have been able to try on a watch before deciding which to purchase. There’s no way I’m buying a Watch without seeing it, figuring out which size is best, and so on. I just don’t get this hooha about having to wait. Come July, when the novelty has worn off and it’s just a watch (a great watch, but just a thing), you will wonder what you were getting so excited and/or upset about.
it´s boring. i´ve got an imac, a mac mini server, a macbook , a macbook pro, an ipad and two iphones, a certina watch from 1959 which get its energy from my arm movements – why should i need apple watch?
The author sounds ridiculous. This is an entire new category that Apple has zero experience in. It’s also got so many customizations. Those of us who knew what we wanted should not have to wait for others to decide which watch they want. If you are undecided then you can wait to get your order in. All this article simply because someone couldn’t get their watch on the first day of release. A soft launch is all that is possible for an unknown category. No one’s wildest expectations would’ve expected Apple to sell more than 500k during the Apr 24th weekend. The iPhone and iPad were only able to sell like 300k. What makes people think the watch would be any different?
“This is an entire new category that Apple has zero experience in. It’s also got so many customizations.”
It’s a technology product with internal processing hardware and a display. This is the only thing Apple does. The bands and watches are built separately. There are a few bands and three watches to worry about making. The various combinations have no impact on the fact that there are not enough watches to put in stores on Friday.
“All this article simply because someone couldn’t get their watch on the first day of release.”
I didn’t order one and have no plans to. I don’t want an Apple Watch. Try again.
“No one’s wildest expectations would’ve expected Apple to sell more than 500k during the Apr 24th weekend. What makes people think the watch would be any different?”
I never heard anyone predict just half a million in sales. This number is ridiculously low and anyone watching the industry knew it was going to be higher than this. The difference between this and the launch of the original iOS devices is time. This is a completely different era. Everyone has smartphones now and smartphone accessories sell like hotcakes, as does anything with an Apple logo on it. To assume that Apple would NOT move a significant number is just ludicrous and is exactly the time of mentality I’m calling out in this article. Apple didn’t properly prepare for what was obviously going to be a large number of orders and now that’s coming back to bite them.
If you don’t want a watch yourself then I have even less idea why you feel aggrieved that Apple don’t have stock in the stores.
Must just want something to complain about, I guess.
If you can’t figure out why someone might call a lack of actual products on launch day a failure, I can’t help you.
Expectations were in the millions actually.
You think apple makes 2 million watches just on a hunch?
Has anyone come up with the number of permutations of the Apple Watch (just don’t have the time right now to do the math)? That explains it all. The permutations of iPhones is Black/Silver/Gold and then size of storage. The Apple Watch has exponentially more combinations and therefore it is way harder to predict demand. And with all the naysayers predicting failure, Apple wanted to play it safe and not have an Amazon Fire situation where you need to pay people to take the product off your hands.
You speak as if they’re made as one unit. They’re not.
Believe me, if the problem were simply packing the combinations into a cardboard box then it wouldn’t be a problem.
Yeah, I can see how pre-orders of only 40,000 units of a $12,000 tech device in 2 weeks can be construed as “soft”. Only $2B of orders in 2 weeks – tsk tsk tsk. Apple should have Ahrendts’ head! Just how much inventory SHOULD they have produced, considering how every tech industry “expert” claimed that the Apple Watch would be a colossal flop and no one would want one! You guys talk out of both sides of your mouths!
I don’t think you know what a soft launch is. It doesn’t have anything to do with the number of units sold. I didn’t see a single analyst who said this was going to flop at launch. It has an Apple logo on it and goes with the iPhone. There was no way this wasn’t going to sell a ton on pre-order.
Apple should have planned for bottlenecks at the supply chain level and didn’t. Now they have nothing to put in stores on launch day. This is completely on them.
This article is SPOT ON. I’m tired of reading people defend Apple. They messed up here.
Buy before you try. How BACKWARD is that. It’s ridiculous.
You are Backward – what do you mean buy before you try – you can make an appointment to try it before you buy. Guesses: I think on the 24th anyone who walks in will be able to try but not be able to walk out with one. You will be able to place an order in store
Ahrendts has confirmed orders will be online-only, but maybe Apple employees will let you use in-store computers to place the order. Either way, it’s confirmed no one’s going to walk out of an Apple Store with a watch in-hand this weekend.
I can’t get over how deluded you people are. What I mean by buy before you try is the whole idea was to try before you bought – except, by the time you’d tried it – it had sold out! Apple practically encouraged people to order blind. I read a stat here that said most people bought two watches.. yeah, because they didn’t know what watch they bloody needed. Can’t wait to see the return stats.
You can try before you buy – unless you HAVE TO HAVE ONE RIGHT AWAY.
What’s wrong with trying, ordering and getting it delivered in June? I agree it’s ridiculous to buy a watch before trying it – so WhyTF are people doing it? Because their world will end if they don’t have a Watch in May?
2 months is a long time in the tech world – the thing will be old tech! I jest, but the thing has been floating around for over a year now and frankly I’ve seen so much of it (and experienced so little) I’m beginning to question my initial desire for one.
Love apple and apple products but I think this was confusing and poorly managed also in the sales side, not just supply chain. By virtue of reading this article on this site I would say that it is fair to say I am in 1 per cent of most interested people globally in apple. Not living in a launch country I was about to change my flights to Poland to have a night in Berlin to buy the watch. I naturally assumed I would be able to pre-order the 38mm steel milanese for pick up on 25th April (to coincide with try in appointment). On the day I realised that appointments could only be booked 2 days in advance, there was no in-store pickup and no way to deliver outside Germany so non chance and then in 6 minutes it is another three month wait. I still want to buy them but by the time they will either come to my country or be available on a walk in basis on a country where ai visit it might be more than a year since September 2014 unveiling and I think that is a bit too much….
Its as simple as breaking now ground. There was no breakdown in supply chain management. As an investor APPL I expect the company to take measured steps into new markets. I also expect the company to take steps to respond to changes in forecasted demand, as APPL no doubt is.
What I see here is a company who is innovating, wisely using its capital, not betting the farm and doing its best to assuage the consumers whose demand for the product is pushing the forecasted units beyond what I would image was expected.
Further, it could be (and we don’t know), that LG could have been the only licensed manufacturer for the displays at this time. It may have been that it would take some evidence of demand exceeding LG’s capacity without regards to their yields, before other suppliers would be able to invest in the processes and lines to uptake secondary source manufacture of the display components.
There is a lot of terrific innovation in the tech space. Apple, and others are doing well advancing what we have come to know as the state of the art. To speculate a declare a launch (or soft launch) a failure is unwarranted. However, as you have the platform (9to5 Mac), I guess you can say what you want. And you can entertain us with your lack of comprehension of both the facts and what it takes to product, ship and sell millions of anything.
Meanwhile, we will continue to enjoy Apple’s products, and returns on shareholder investments — only now, we get out and take a walk, run, bike, row or climb — and enjoy our Apple product. Going outside and playing sometimes, is good for for the mind.
Except, as the reports from March show, there WAS a breakdown in supply chain management when Apple failed to fill in the gaps left by LG’s inability to meet the full 3 million-unit order. If some other supplier had completed that order, we wouldn’t be looking at delays until June for pre-orders. No product in stores on launch day = failure.
It you want to be a journalist, you need to confirm your sources and second source material facts. “Reports from March show ..” is not a fact. Its not even a citation. If you review every Apple SEC filing, and the transcripts of any and all Apple calls with analysts, the earnings calls, and even the recent Apple Executive interviews with Media, you will not find a single case where Apple indicates there was an issue with LG’s Yield, nor will you even find Apple acknowledging the LG is the manufacturer — not to suggest that they are not.
Further, Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI securities out of Korea in July of 2013 seems to be the first individual who was quoted as saying their are manufacturing issues with the component. He has no citation, not basis for his statements either.
For you, to run your line of thinking based on unsubstatiated facts and speculation adds you to those who speculate and not those who report facts or posit circumstances based on established facts.
There are a large number of large scale investors who run these things to ground. Apparently more so that you are able to.
So I cite a March report from KGI and you cry foul because you don’t like the source of the report, so it must be wrong? LOL OK
I’d say the launch has been very big so far, and will be successful once the product ships. Yes there are stock constraints, but that’s usually the case.
Frankly I’d rather stock was allocated to the preorder’s as opposed to previous years where some stock still went to the store for walk in sales, regardless of what the back log for orders was. People who ordered two weeks earlier could end up waiting a few weeks, while some (admittedly eagre) people could line up early on a Friday morning and grab a phone on the day. I think first in best dress is fairer, given anyone that can get to an Apple Store or buy an iPhone can probably get access to an online order form.
Issues impacting supply would no doubt be the complexity to engineer this particular product, and the fact that in comparison to the iPhone at least, they are shipping watches to more countries than just the US. If tight stock gets spread over the globe, then it’s natural that there will be stock issues.
You also had the situation under the old system where people would order a phone, got a shipment date later than they would like, queued at the store and then cancelled or returned their original order if they got a phone on launch day.
All of this ties up stock around the launch. I know its frustrating, but its better that all stock goes to the pre-orders than have chaos and disappointment at the stores.
It’s not better this way. The situation you’re describing doesn’t pose a problem. Cancelled pre-orders are just sold to someone else. It’s not like the watch shipped to the customer’s house and had to be returned. If there were in-store models to buy and people cancelled pre-orders, there would be no net loss for Apple, but the customer would have a much smoother experience and end up happier for having gotten their watch on launch day instead of two months later.
But they are taken out of the chain exactly at the most important time, which is the day of launch.
I queued for an iPhone 6, although I had one on order. I got an email just as I walked in the shop to tell me that the one I had ordered would be delivered in three days time, do I chose not to get another. If I had bought an iPhone 6 at the store, that would be a phone unavailable for a week until it had been returned, and delivered to someone else.
I get the point that you would want to try before pre-order etc. I agree that there was some mistakes in the whole process as mentioned in the article. However are we blaming Apple that they sold their inventory too quick? Really.
If they have taken similar approach as iPhone launches, who wants to see these ridicules lines at every store just so a few hundred maybe can buy it in person. Even the iPhones are quickly back-ordered 4-6 week at every launch. I do think that with the watch they have production issues, but there nothing that we can do about.
As I commented in another 9to5 piece: “hashtag clusterfuck”.
When early-adopters (you’re best customers and advertising) become late-adopters because of failure to deliver that’s a disaster. Throwing out some watches at high end fashion boutiques on launch day adds insult to injury for the hard-core fans: you’ve allowed, what, “the fashionable”(?) to cut in the line and pick up what your best buyers will now wait months for. Just so you can say you’ve made launch with product? Seriously?
It’s fairly embarrassing when it’s this obvious your best customers are secondary to how you want your product to be marketed. Ahrendts’ memo and later video aren’t just for staff, they’re for everyone that recognizes Apple has taken its eye off the ball in search of a nod from fashion elites.
If they’d been more thoughtful, they could have pleased a lot of people. At the end of the day, they will have abused their core fans and worst of all, once the dust has settled the fashion industry will simply move on to the next new sparkly thing.
Eventually everyone will get their watch. Eventually Apple will learn from this idiotic mistake: you can epitomize fashion and luxury, but you don’t have to screw your best customers getting there.
I disagree in several Points. That setbacks in sapphire crystal production prevented the manufacturing of iPhone 6 displays is wrong. Sappireglas is only used as cover for the cameralenses and the fingerprintsensor.
Actually, it was originally intended for the displays as well, per many, many reports from before the launch. However, due to high failure rates at the plants as well as some serious mismanagement, Apple ended up being unable to use the sapphire and had to go with a contingency plan for the display panels.
The watch will be available for sale in stores and not just Apple. The number of units sold will show this to be a fluffy “click-bait-article”
Inhear crow tastes bad. Let me know?
A limited number of devices at a couple of niche boutiques in a handful of cities? Hardly a full-scale retail rollout. And not having any product to sell in the actual Apple Stores? Tremendous failure, plain and simple.
The Apple Store is supposed to be the primary outlet for the company’s products, yet will be unable to fill a single order for any customer anywhere in the United States because Apple failed to plan ahead. It’s indefensible, really.
Unless they did plan ahead and decided that most people would want to try watches on while buying them, and envisaged a huge PR nightmare from that logistical disaster? I know that I would not buy a watch without trying it on (I’m amazed that millions of people apparently would).
I agree with a lot of your points and there are things they could have done much better, but I’m not convinced that having Watches in-store on April 24 would have been a great idea. In which case, poor communication (as you pointed out in the article) may be the main sin.
I’ve been following this launch pretty closely, and I agree with much of what was said in this article. This launch has been pretty poorly handled in several ways. That doesn’t mean that the Watch itself is or will be a failure. Just that there have been a number of things that have been suboptimal, several of which were seemingly avoidable. The biggest head-scratcher for me is something that the article glossed over — online preorders started at midnight on the 10th and try-ons began at the start of business later that day. Why? Why not allow a week or so for people to actually know what they want to order beforehand?
And no, it really wasn’t clearly spelled out that the Watch wouldn’t be available in stores on launch day (or for at least a month or two afterward, it seems). CNN ran a story a few days ago literally saying that Apple had changed their policy and decided not to sell them in stores on launch day, so if that had been the plan all along, it was not clearly communicated.
But maybe that’s a good thing in a way, because even as it was the online preorders sold out extremely quickly. People who were just 5 or 10 minutes late getting their order in got dates that were several weeks later than the earliest orderers, and it should also be mentioned that several Watch models had 4-6 week estimates right from the very beginning! Now, I got my order in within 3 minutes and have already been charged, so I am expecting a Watch on Friday, but there are a lot of people who weren’t as lucky. I don’t understand the people who feel the need to defend everything that Apple does. I love the company, but that doesn’t make them infallible.
There actually will be a blockbuster debut on Friday at Dover Street Market in Tokyo and London, Maxfield in Los Angeles, Collette in Paris, the Corner in Berlin and Corso Como in Milan. I hope this will be a better debut than the one of Mrs Ahrendt.
All these comments remindo me that these are no Stores in Portugal where I can see it :(
All these comments remind me that there are no Stores in Portugal where I can see it personally :(
Over the years I’ve purchased most things that Apple have thrown at me. This includes crappy StyleWriters, LaserWriters, barely functional Newtons, iPods by the bucketload, yearly iPhones, Apple Speakers and more Macs and portables than I can bear to think about. However, the Apple Watch just leaves me cold. What can it do that the iPhone doesn’t already do better? I’ll need some persuading on this one.
It’s a wearable computer. Try putting an iPhone on your wrist so that you can glance at information while running to catch the train, or flash your wrist at the cash register to pay for your coffee, or quickly ask Siri for directions while your hands are full. There are LOTS of things it can do. That doesn’t mean anyone NEEDS one, same as you don’t NEED an iPhone either (but especially as you CAN do most of these things, albeit less conveniently, with an iPhone which you already have in your pocket). But that doesn’t mean there aren’t really good uses for it.
If you spend all day at home or in an office, it’s probably less valuable. If you are out and about a lot, I think it’s a great idea – since they announced it, I notice all of the times during a typical day when I have to stop what I’m doing, put down my bags, take out my phone etc., and how much more convenient it would be to glance at my wrist. Just yesterday, when looking for my hotel after arriving in London by train, for example. I was carrying bags, not sure which direction to walk (even after looking at the map earlier on my phone), and I would have loved to be wearing a Watch to glance at directions. That’s one tiny example, but I think it’s a good one.
I suppose the thing is I never wear a watch. It’s alien to me.
Ahrendts has been canned yet? They hired her specifically because of this upcoming launch and she botched it.
Yes, SHE did. She is the executive manager in charge of the retail end of Watch, and this is the first utter fail in Apple Retail.
She doesn’t place the orders for manufacture, no idea why you think she should be held responsible.
Ahrendts didn’t botch it (apparently). If she hasn’t got any boxes to place on the shelves, how can she fail? It’s (apparently, again) the supply chain before her that’s struggling.
The Macalope over at MacWorld has a biting response to the screed here on 9to5 Mac. He’s responding to Business Insider’s clone article on the same subject, that being Apple’s epic fail.
http://www.macworld.com/article/2913026/a-big-but-trying-to-put-words-in-apples-mouth.html
I suspect the author is trying to evade that fact that enough people have been sensible enough NOT to buy something that is way overpriced and overhyped. Especially given that in a couple of years it’ll be totally deprecated. (think otherwise? Try to sell a 1st-gen iPhone, or even a 4S right now)
Apple tried to sell the Watch like it’s gonna be one of those mechanical timepieces that you can spend 4+ figures on and it’ll keep its value forever. This isn’t happening and people are smart enough to know that.
“Unless he changes tact…”
The word you’re looking for there is “tack,” as in “a course of action or conduct, especially one differing from some preceding or other course.”
“Tact,” on the other hand, is “an ability to avoid offense” or “a sense of what is appropriate.” Tact is something someone either has or doesn’t have; it can’t be changed, as there aren’t types or qualities of tact.
(Oh, and I completely agree with your opinion here. This feels like a poorly handled “launch,” especially by a modern Apple that should really know better…)
It took the iPhone 74 days to sell a million units. It took the iPad nearly a month to sell a million units. It took the Apple Watch a day to pre-sell a million units without people even seeing the product in person. in less than 10 days Apple has sold more Smart Watches than all other manufacturers combined since the first one was created. How is that not a blockbuster success?
I suspect that Apple ran into a last minute production issue that only became apparent after it was too late to change their launch date. Or perhaps more likely, they ran into production issues that incrementally pushed the “early 2015” launch date to the end of April, at which point they no longer felt comfortable pushing the date back any further.
At this point an executive decision was made that some short term customer frustrations were preferable to postponing the release date any further.
Remember that this is not just a new product, but a whole new product category, and one that has pushed the limits of miniaturization and energy efficiency while demanding an unprecedented supply of sapphire crystal which is notorious for yield issues.
In 2-3 months I think things will return to normal and this story will be filed away alongside other Apple “scandals” that have been blown way out of proportion.
The main area where I think Apple has stumbled is communication. Yes, they’ve tried to under promise by quoting generously padded delivery date ranges, but in so doing they’ve left customers frustrated with an excessive amount of uncertainty as to when they might receive the Watches that they woke up at 3 in the morning to pre-order.
i wanted to buy the watch but the battery power, lack of water proof and that It operated differently than the iPhone dissuaded me. A failure of Tim Cook mostly, his first post Jobs product. is there a “staying focused” problem. It has been sold like rich lady’s fashion.