If you’re reading this article, you already know Apple’s pre-order drill for major new releases: Apple announces a new product, says advance online orders will start at 12:01am on a specific day, and then — when most of its customers are either exhausted or groggy — re-opens its online store to a pent-up frenzy of reservations. Virtually every time, Apple’s most dedicated customers deal with delays and web site loading problems. Sometimes, even if their orders were placed in the first hour or two of sales, they may also face uncertainty over adequate supplies for launch day deliveries.
Despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s suggestion that the Apple Watch rollout could not be going better, his customers have widely deemed it a disaster: some unlucky people who pre-ordered Apple Watches in the first 10 minutes still haven’t received anything a full month later. Meanwhile, a group of “luckier” people — notably including scalpers — have found ways to skip Apple’s pre-order lines, walking into boutiques such as Maxfield in Los Angeles, and buying bunches of the same Watches pre-orderers are still waiting for.
Sure, overwhelming demand for new products can be hard to manage, and business gurus tend to write this off as a “good problem” for any company to have. But at some point, that good problem becomes chronic, frequently dissatisfying customers, which is when it has officially become a “bad problem.” Whether he admits it or not, that’s the situation Tim Cook faces today. The good news is that he’s well-known as a supply chain genius, so if anyone’s capable of fixing the three key problems within Apple’s screwy pre-order system, it’s him. My hope is that discussing these issues — as well as solutions — will inspire the improvements Apple’s customers have been wanting for a long time…
1: Rethinking the 12:01AM online pre-ordering experience. It’s been around five years since Apple started taking middle-of-the-night orders for iPhones — a process that has been unpleasant for customers since the beginning. Apple and its cellular partners have blamed one another over the years for various ordering errors and complete web site crashes, but at this point, Apple’s had more than enough time to make its own web site reliable for launches. Now that it’s transitioning into a luxury/lifestyle brand, it needs a no-nonsense online ordering experience — one that works whenever its customers are awake and ready to shop.
The biggest problem here is timing. Apple may have picked 12:01AM Pacific Time because it was a quiet time for web traffic, catering only to passionate customers, and a point at which Apple’s online sales team could focus on managing just one type of demand. But whatever the old justifications were, there’s no good reason to continue inconveniencing customers like this: Apple has millions of customers and billions of dollars in the bank; it should have the necessary staff and infrastructure to take its next million orders and make its next billion dollars any time of day. Midnight pre-order launches aren’t helping special customers at this point. Because of limited availability, eBay scalpers are actively gaming the system, and tons of valuable customers are getting pushed behind them in line.
Solution: It’s time to rethink both the timing of the pre-ordering process, and the process itself. If an arbitrary time is needed, why not noon — lunch time for at least some people? A better solution would eliminate artificial timing altogether. Apple has hundreds of millions of customer credit cards already on file, and the Apple Store goes down during every major new product announcement, anyway. So why not just start taking orders as soon as the event ends? To reward dedicated fans who watch the event, fulfill the first hour of preorders in first-come, first-served sequence after the event is over. After that first hour, let the next wave of delivery-date-sensitive customers optionally add a 2%-5% premium to their orders, donated straight to a charity such as PRODUCT (RED), to get earlier shipping priority. Any cancelled order moves the remaining orders up in line.
2: Streamlining SKUs to reduce consumer confusion and fulfillment issues. One of Steve Jobs’ smartest moves when returning to Apple was a radical streamlining of its product lines: fewer products meant less confusion for customers, fewer parts for manufacturing partners, and simpler stocking for retailers. But Apple’s SKUs (stock keeping units, or individual product variations) are out of control again. Competing cellular standards forced Apple to sell separate iPhones and iPads for various carriers, so it got used to making every color and every capacity in multiple versions, as well as bundling carrier-specific SIMs with some iPhones. Today, Apple sells over 50 different iPad models, which is probably why it was willing to roll out the Apple Watch in 38 different variations. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t warn customers in advance that it wasn’t actually ready to ship them all on day one, and some of those models missed the initial launch date by nearly a full month.
Solution: It’s time for Apple to go back to basics again and radically simplify its product lines. Now that the technologies have matured, iPhones should ship with universal network support, and with Apple SIMs pre-installed. Any carrier that doesn’t sign up for Apple SIM support in time for the next iPhone launch can skip the launch. Similarly, there should be one iPad — the cellular + Wi-Fi model — at the current price point of the Wi-Fi models, again with Apple SIMs pre-installed. And every aluminum or steel Apple Watch should ship with a Sport Band. These three changes would make Apple’s products a lot easier to choose from and ship.
3: Guaranteeing shipment of units in the order placed, putting online preorders ahead of retail sales. Although it doesn’t happen with every launch, some users have recently been disheartened by Apple’s willingness to fulfill some orders non-sequentially — a problem that may sound somewhat tricky to fix. It was least offensive when Apple offered same-day shipments of 38mm Apple Watches when some “day one, first hour” customers were still waiting for their 42mm Apple Watches. There’s no avoiding this: Apple has every reason to offer the quickest possible delivery of its 38mm inventory regardless of whether it’s backlogged on 42mm models.
The real problem was that many first-hour, first-day, and first-week pre-orders remained unfulfilled while Apple’s boutique retail partners were selling products to people who randomly walked in off the street. Los Angeles’s Maxfield sold many Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch units this way, but Apple’s own retail stores routinely do this with Apple accessories, too. Last week, hard-to-find Apple Watch bands went on sale to walk-in customers at a handful of Apple Stores in cities such as Miami, Los Angeles, and Stanford, even though Apple hadn’t shipped month-old pre-orders and wasn’t promising to do so for another month. It’s just bad business to take and hold pre-orders when random retail customers will be able to walk in and buy the same products weeks or months earlier — it makes people feel as if they’re being treated unfairly.
Solution: Angela Ahrendts is supposedly working to blur the line between the Apple Retail and Online experiences. In fairness to customers of both shops, if “first come, first served” is going to be a policy, online pre-orders should always receive priority, rather than off-the-street retail customers. No one should be able to skip the line.
One More Thing: Redefining the retail “lineup” experience for a luxury brand. The single best comment I’ve seen from a reader this year was a commentary on Apple’s transformation into a fashion-lifestyle company; paraphrased, he said that the sight of people camping outdoors for Apple products in trash bag-like sleeping bags was clashing with Apple’s luxury retail ambitions. In other words, it’s time for Apple to bid good riddance to launch day lines. I think he’s right: waiting overnight for a new iPhone on the sidewalks of a shopping mall is no better than pitching a tent outside Walmart to save $50 on Black Friday. Between Apple’s widely-acknowledged success and the availability of options to avoid lines, there’s no good reason for these lineups, apart from the annual spectacle of seeing tired, disheveled adults and a growing number of professional line-waiters wait around for hours to pick up devices.
Solution: Apple’s online reservation system is capable of queuing customers for Genius Bar visits and try-on appointments. The company is also able to take advance and same-day orders for in-store product pickups. Apple Retail should expand upon these systems to form virtual launch-day lines, offering appointments to pick up new products on launch days. It should guarantee availability of the ordered product in up to two given capacities, colors, or sizes per customer; the launch day’s leftover inventory could thereafter become available to late-to-reserve customers, and then walk-in customers.
What do you think, readers? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Watch question – is your credit card charged when you order, or when it is shipped?
Right before it’s shipped.
when shipped
Agree 100% with all of your points.
Streamline the product offering + invest on the simplification and improvement of the customer experience.
I like the line ups, but they really have to move pre-orders back to the middle of the day again. I can’t stand waking up at 3 am, and then briefly passing out for a half hour, and then missing all the devices available.
So you prefer to go line up a day or two ahead than get up at 3 am for 10-20 minutes? Makes sense.
I think what he means, is that he likes the spectacle of the line ups. Not necessarily that he likes to wait in them. I too have to wake up at 2:55am, wait 6 mins for the store to open, all the while, I stare at a bright white screen (which makes going back to sleep difficult). Those of us on the east coast have it the worst and it’s about time they change the pre-order method.
As for as the lines go, I know they are iconic and people love to see them, as do I. It just shows the loyalty people share for a company and its products they enjoy. However, I do believe it’s time to see this method go, as it’s creating a whole mess of scalpers, professional line waiters and as Jeremy pointed out, the lines don’t exactly say “high-quality” and upscale retail store.
Overall, I agree with everything that Jeremy said 100%.
Sorry, but the first point is just not good. They should let people some time to look at the product and the options, especially for the Watch for example, so letting people preorder right after the event is a bad idea, especially considering user experience. I would be totally in with a time change, though. I would LOVE to be able to order at 12.01AM or even 03.01AM, because here in Germany it starts at 9 AM every time and then I’m sitting in school… But especially the pledging for faster delivery is just dumb… You pay a premium price for Apple Devices all together, adding something, even if they don’t take it theirselves, which I believe they would do if they did do what you proposed, is just really unfair. It might even be against law in some countries.
Paying more for faster shipping can’t be against the law. In what country would it be illegal to create a system that allows some people to have priority with a charitable rather than profit incentive?
Not to have it ship faster, but to move up in the queue. I’m sure it’s illegal in a lot of countries.
Bang on the money. The SKU streamlining in particular… That iPad range image highlights perfects just how out of control things have got… How many people are actually buying iPad Mini 1s??!!!
School systems, for one. I’m not sure about now in 2015, but for a few years the iPad 2 was the prefered model for a lot of school systems in my area.
My employer still issues iPad 2s to employees now in 2015. I can imagine that there are people still buying the original Mini.
i agree 100% i am waiting since april for my watch w547663780 i am 84 and sick and hope to be on this side when the watch arrives
I’d say I strongly disagree with your points
1. The delay before preorder is most probably here for marketing reasons (make everyone keep talking about the device they want to buy, increasing the hype) more than technical. Also, Apple devices launch at the same time in Europe, China and US: they had to pick a region for the unlucky hour, and changing will only piss off other customers, for a negligible benefit.
2. Are you really comparing a company months away from bankruptcy needing, for its survival, to focus its effort with one of the largest company of the world? Each device target a specific market/price range. Logistics are complicated enough they wouldn’t keep a device that didn’t pay for itself. Killing profitable products is hard, especially when the analysts are predicting always higher revenue.
3. I wouldn’t tell the company with one of the most elaborated supply chain in the world how to handle its supply chain. Same comment for the in-store experience: they are not two equivalent customers, one paid and is simply piking up a package that could as well have been shipped, telling them “Sorry, we sold your watch” is probably worse than seeing someone picking up its package.
thanks for summing up a lot of what i felt about this article! sounds like the author is just complaining because apple isn’t catering to everything they want in the way they want it. get over it.
They said the watch would be here on April 24th; It’s over a month later and most people still don’t have their watches yet…and they stayed up until 3AM to order it!
They were also forced to change the imagery on their website that said the watch would be here on the 24th — that’s just plain sad. They’re the most valuable brand in the world and have billions of dollars.
I’m sorry but this is unacceptable.
Regardless, if you think they’re doing everything right, then how was the watch launch debacle allowed to happen?
What part of the line up process you find nice exactly? Staying up ALL night in the cold or bad weather condition or people sleeping in plastic bags in the streets? The whole thing should move online as the whole line up thing is becoming hidious. Plus you mention scalpers buying from boutiques? What about the scalpers that are basically the majority of people lining up? Scalpers are everywhere and no launch method will get rid of them.
I do want apple products as early as everybody else, but I’m not willing to stand up in a line for a whole night or even longer. I prefer to go online and send my order at 12:00.
The problem with this launch was the straps and how the manufactures couldn’t supply them at the same time. I ordered the milanese loop at 12:10 and received it in 2 weeks because the band was available.
Nothing wrong with the Apple Watch launch except the band availability.
Good point about taking order sooner but there are laws around taking (pre)orders limiting how early you can charge a credit card. Credit card authorization expire within 30 days (debit sooner). Unless the you know the product is ready to ship within a month, no point taking preordes.
Like all of the points. Still waiting for the watch with ambiguous date although posted 6 minutes after opening.
I think they could have done a better job aligning most popular models for the watch with inventory. I think they tried to steer people away from the Space black watches by requiring the most expensive band but that didn’t work.
Also think they misestimated 38 vs 42 mm demand.
With any in-demand product whether it be a concert, a bike race or a product, a lottery system is also manageable. First Come-First Served does lead to a lot of jamming at the start line. If you had two days to get your lottery ticket, we all wouldn’t be on their site at the same time.
I have two points about this article. 1. Apple can’t force any network provider to use Apple SIM, it’s not going to work out. 2. I live in Turkey and there are two Apple Stores. None of them had the new 12″ MacBook until last week, even for demonstration. And when iPhone 6 launched in my country, i had ordered it from Online Store just after it became alive and i had got it after a month. While on the launch day, other people could get their iPhone 6’s from Apple Retail Store or from other “kind-of Best Buy” stores. But i agree Apple’s product line is so confusing. iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, Retina iMac, non-Retina iMac, blah blah blah…
I disagree with shipping the same watch to everyone and purchasing the bands separately (which is essentially what your option of shipping them all with sport bands is). I don’t want the sport band and don’t want to pay for something I’m not going to use. I’m pretty sure once Apple gets production of the Apple Watch sorted out future updates will be fairly routine. Just order it or pick it up.
I think the watch and the band should be separately packaged. Sure, you can’t use one without the other, which is why they’re SOLD together… but packaged separately.
That way there’s no possibility to have a pile of Sport band watches, and a pile of leather loops sitting in the corner, and yet be unable to ship someone a watch with a leather loop.
Specifically for AW: My hypothesis for the apple watch is that marketing and supply chain were doing a customer validation to ensure they didn’t produce too many of a single type of sku. Thus the pre-orders are a fair indication as to how to trend the production lines. Without the preorder validation, supply chain takes on larger risk of lost inventory. Especially around the 38 vs 42 sport vs regular. Those matrices are key for supply chain accuracy.
Yep. That’s what the two week window is for, and a million pre-orders is a large enough determinative sample for this purpose. The remaining 8 weeks of wait time are pure debacle.
“Meanwhile, a group of “luckier” people — notably including scalpers — have found ways to skip Apple’s pre-order lines, walking into boutiques such as Maxfield in Los Angeles, and buying bunches of the same Watches pre-orderers are still waiting for.”
This is completely and utterly false. I was at the Maxfield LA store on Day one, and also went there a week later. They were only allowing one per person while they had stock. After they ran out of stock, they began taking orders for delivery, just like the at Apple Stores.
There are dozens of forum discussion posts elaboring in detail about the various stock levels Maxfield held at different times over the past month, the car full of Watches bought up by scalpers, and the celebrity/talent customers who were able to skip even their line to get Watches.
Forecasting demand is also a HUGE issue. So you have a situation, where the products most in demand and therefore the most ordered, are in fact shipped the slowest. As of me writing this here on Tuesday May 26 at 15:14 PST, Apple has not even cleared the FIRST DAY of pre-orders for the 42MM Space Gray Sport with Black Sport Band. This is since April 10th!!!
Meanwhile, those less frequently purchased are ordering now and getting their watch in a few days. So why would someone who orders a product today, despite it’s being less desired by people get their product faster than those who ordered 45 days ago?
Maybe they could have started taking pre-orders in February so they would know the demand and knew how many of each model they had to make?
I love this article man but honestly, this sort of nonsense has been going on since the iPad 1 (at least that’s how far back I remember it) and has just gotten worse ever since with each new product launch. I would love to see Apple change things up but I doubt they will in this case :(
How is that simplifying anything?… Add 2% to your order to get it faster. That’s utter nonsense. This isn’t Walmart where you pay for next day shipping…
“To reward dedicated fans who watch the event, fulfill the first hour of preorders in first-come, first-served sequence after the event is over. After that first hour, let the next wave of delivery-date-sensitive customers optionally add a 2%-5% premium to their orders, donated straight to a charity such as PRODUCT (RED), to get earlier shipping priority. Any cancelled order moves the remaining orders up in line.”
There actually is an option for next-day shipping for most Apple Store orders. Apple sometimes disables it for major product launches, but for accessories and non-major launch items, it can occasionally make a two-day difference in delivery time. This suggestion is different, however, as it is a question of prioritizing order fulfillment rather than reducing shipping time once the order is fulfilled. In one case your maximum difference would be a few days, in the other it could easily be weeks.
That wasn’t even my point. It makes everything more complicated. The order system is fine the way it is they just need to make sure it doesn’t crash leading up to it so they actually start at 12:01. There’s nothing wrong with ordering something at midnight either… That means that the people that really want it will order then.
“I think he’s right: waiting overnight for a new iPhone on the sidewalks of a shopping mall is no better than pitching a tent outside Walmart to save $50 on Black Friday.” — so true. You don’t see people camping outside Sak’s Fifth Avenue or Nieman Marcus when the new Prada shoes come in.
That’s because the demand for those are NO WHERE near the demand for Apple products.
People camping out for iPhones is equivilent to people camping out for Air Jordans. It looks bad. It is bad. I live across the street from an Apple Store and I think it looks ridiculous and trashy to see people camped on the sidewalk. Most malls in my area have started regulating or stopping people for lining up for shoes. This was done after some in the community complained and some incidents happened. Granted, the shoe lining up thing happened almost every weekend and big Apple launches only happen once a year, but it’s the same principle.
Just like a lot of the people who used to line up outside the malls/stores for Jordans, a lot of the people lining up outside of Apple stores are looking to make a quick profit. The people who truly want the product to use the product can get it online. Apple just needs to make sure they have their supply in order and don’t keep loyal customers (or even new customers) waiting a month. The Apple Watch launch was a disaster. This is coming from someone who received a Space Grey sport with black band on day one. I’m just now starting to see people ‘in the wild’ with Watches. It’s not supposed to go this way.
I ordered two watches back in April. The 38mm got delivered ahead of the scheduled delivery. Still waiting on the 42mm
It seems that the watch launch caused much confusion. I didn’t feel comfortable ordering on the first day because I wasn’t sure what the options were. The Apple Store employees weren’t sure either. At first I was told that you couldn’t swap bands. That turned out to be untrue.
None of this actually solves the actual problem, Jeremy. The actual problems lie in *physics*…something I outlined elsewhere, but here is the short version:
Let’s say Apple made, i don’t know, 2-3 Million watches, up front. Let’s go with 2, nice even number, 2-thousand thousand devices.
Ok, so let’s take a single large, tech-oriented city, like…NYC. Population: ~ 8.4 million.
If Apple sold a Watch to just 25% of that population they would have been out of supply. With anywhere near a decent fulfillment rate with their online system, they’d be sold out in an hour.
This single contraint alone is a problem, but add in the logistics of actually getting the parts to where they need to be for assembly, robot vs human assembly (both break down ;))…the number of hours in a day…it just isn’t possible.
It doesn’t matter what time of day you choose, or the day, or the ordering requirements you set up front or the pricing…with 100s of millions of potential customers, there is no scenario involving the production of a complex electronic device with parts sourced worldwide that the demand could be met in a way that would satisfy…any notion.
This isn’t even a uniquely Apple problem…it happens with new releases of “hot” items ranging from shoes and children’s toys to cars and video game systems.
None of your suggestions would make a difference at all. Hell even “dramapress” reviews seemed unable to put a dent in the demand.
Scalping would still happen…people will be mad that “someone” (*anyone*) got “their X” instead of/before they did, etc.
Preorders vs “retail” – what if “retail” pre-orders? A sale is a sale.
Online Reservations – With more than 20-30 a day…you get lines. Problem not solved.
Streamlining SKUs: Apple manages 1000s of SKUs…just like everyone else. Less choices would mean *more constraints* because the demand would not be spread out at all. The problem isn’t having too many SKUs…the problem is not having the physical capacity to build enough of what people want.
Again, the *reality* is simple: the only “solution” to this (from a business perspective) non-problem would be to make something not a lot of people wanted or could afford (even then, this reduces supply) which isn’t really a problem anyone that has to physically manufacture anything wants to have.
-K
Respectfully disagree with both the premise (that the problem is unsolvable except by making bad or unaffordable products), and the specifics. I’m not going to write an article worth of response, but will just say that there was a point at which Apple was shipping 1/100 the quantity of products it does today, and it had similar problems (but fewer people, a lot less money, and comparably little experience to solve them). If it had basically said “problem unsolvable” at that point, it would still be a tiny company. Instead, it scaled – not fast enough to get ahead of production problems and demand, but to lag just enough behind them that the same problems persist at a much larger scale. The challenge is to get ahead of the problem. On the ops side it does that by increasing manufacturing and setting more realistic launch dates that it can meet given its scale. On the retail and wholesale side it can implement policies to improve fairness for its customers and provide better sales experiences to the maximum extent possible. I don’t think these things are beyond Cook’s capabilities. They should frankly be right up his alley, and as a customer satisfaction-driven executive, his mandate.
100% true and on point — Apple today has more customers than ever but these problems are not new or unique to specific products by any means; you can go back very far in Apple’s history and still see the same launch issues time and time again, whether it’s a laptop / desktop or iPod — it doesn’t matter.
I believe that now they have more than enough resources to finally squash these issues for good; not everything is in their control, but for the things that are, they have more than enough man power, all star managers, capital, and overall resources to get the job done.
What you fail to acknowledge is that back then Apple was a smaller company and not as high on the other companies manufacturing list. Therefore the supply could not be met because those companies were focused on making components for all of their big name clients and not just prioritizing Apple. Whereas now you have companies building factories just to cater to Apple, but the demand is so high that they cannot keep up. Apple products are compromised of components from dozens of companies and a small hiccup from just one of them can stall a product launch or delay us from getting our product when we want it. Throwing money at a problem is not always the answer. Look at GT Advance for example.
Why do you need so many words where spoiled kids only need one sentense: I want my new toy right now!
All of your little soulutions won’t work for a world wide international business. Maybe here is a solution for you:
– Every customer will have to buy exactly your favorite specification of the product. Apple will include your opinion at the early stage of creating the product to make sure many millions of this singe specifications are ready at launch day. All of them completely tested to make sure no problem can arise with the first final products….
– While we are at it we change the time zone to a world wide time. We just take your time as a given for everyone!
And yes: as soon as Apple is making electric cars they should also be in stock so we all can drive it on launch day. To streamline the proces we all take 400hp for the price of 200hp and we all take your favorite colour.
lines work because inherently supply meets demand, even in limited supply. If you didn’t get the product on launch day it is partially because you didn’t want it enough because you were A. Not motivated to get there sooner, or B. Not willing to buy a different version to insure having one immediately. Online would have to recreate that buy finding a way that your desire for one on launch day dictates whether you get one. I would have ordered a different version or waited for 24 hours if it meant getting one on launch day, online needs to be set up in such a way that those hard core individuals who want one so bad its stupid, get one, or it isn’t going to work
I had a terrible Apple Retail experience this last weekend that I feel is beyond dumb. It dovetails nicely in my opinion with the poor communication and issues surrounding the Watch launch, which I also suffered through.
I’m a dock user, so when Apple recently released the Lightning Dock for iPhone 6, a sale was made. I noticed it was available for pick-up at The Grove, so, this weekend, I headed over to The Grove to grab one and maybe catch a movie.
The Grove store stocks accessories upstairs, so I browsed the section and found docks for iPhone 4 and 5, but no 6. I asked an associate, who wasn’t even aware that the new dock had been released.
I asked another associate downstairs on my way out. Same drill, hadn’t even heard of it, but said if there was one, it would be where I had looked upstairs. I left empty-handed.
When I got home, I decided to order it online for delivery later this week. Lo and behold, the online store told me that it was available for pickup “Today” at The Grove (the very same day that I was told they didn’t have any). I live nearby, so the next morning I placed an order first thing and headed back to The Grove.
I showed my receipt to an associate, and while we were waiting for someone to bring my dock out, I asked the associate to please explain the logic of actually HAVING AN ITEM IN STOCK at the store, that no one on staff is even aware of, and that you can’t buy in the store, but can buy online — you could literally order it from one of the display computers, or your phone for that matter — and then you’re allowed to leave the store with one.
I’m not sure what Apple is thinking with this. How stupid is it to have stock of an item in a physical retail location, but refuse to sell it except through online orders? What’s the point of the store? What other store anywhere in the world would turn away customers with cash in hand to buy an in-stock product? Why have a store at all?
I’ve been a loyal Apple customer for 20+ years, and a first-gen early adopter of every major new product since the first aluminum PowerBook G4. The delight of Apple physical retail was immediate gratification. This new buy online pick up later model is tragically bad.
Whatever it is that they are going to make I’m going to buy. Stop making me order things. Just take my money and auto-ship.
Availability of some models has varied widely. I’m still waiting on the 42 SS BSB I ordered on April 13th. In the meantime, I ordered the 38mm version on May 15th, and it shipped in two days!
Everyone knows that availabilty has varied among models. I’m not going to bash your purchase or assume your gender, but the 38mm version should be purchased by females. I suspect a lot of people share my opinion and that’s why the 38mm versions weren’t in as much demand as the 42mm versions. Once you put both on wrist, as a man, you’ll instantly realize the 42mm is just right and the 38mm is too small.
I’m glad Apple made two different sizes, but for version 2 they should have ten times the amount of bigger sizes than smaller sizes if they stick with the two different sizes.
Why not just randomize all first day orders? And then let people cancel or sell their order position.
I’d agree on most points except for launch day line, it’s fun for the people who queue up. Personally, I’ve had some good conversations while waiting. Why would Apple want to do away with it’s user commodore and all the free PR and marketing from the visible spectacle to passerby’s, local and national news coverage and social media. Besides, we spend too much time online in solitude as it is, why not encourage some real social interaction.
I definitely agree on SKU streamlining. Having 3 capacities for each phone and iPad device is silly. The 16GB range should be eliminated immediately. Future devices should come with 64GB (at today’s 16GB price) and 128GB only. 16GB is simply not enough to be used as a daily camera device, let alone having to hold the rest of your life plus have enough free space to decompress and apply an over-the-air update. But with memory as cheap as it is, the incremental cost to bump every device to at least 64GB would pay dividends with making the devices more enjoyable to use!
Every idea in this article is extremely bad. Get rid of one arbitrary time for another (right after the event or during ‘your’ lunch time): bad idea (and self centered). Picking from lots of model varieties is hard for your brain so let’s get rid options that others may like: bad idea (Apple can handle fulfillment of its many varieties of main products much better than it used to when Steve jobs took over). Guaranteeing pre orders over retail: no no and no. There will be no such guarantees. Apple will do its best to get its product out to the customer, both retail and online. You will not get special treatment bc you watched an event, nor should you. you should not have to pay more to get in line. And Apple did a pretty good job of informing everyone when their watch would be shipped at preorder. Supply will be limited on new products.l from Apple. Prob should get over the fact you aren’t special and will have to wait a reasonable time to get it, just like everyone else. It’s a symptom of a company doing things very right, not wrong. Thank you for not being employed by Apple.
The reasoning behind the time of day chosen has nothing to do with demand and the amount of people on the net, it is consumer driven, and the WANT IT NOW way of thinking. When a product is released, on a date, people expect it to be available the minutes the clock ticks 12…! That sucks for the people who have to be awake in the USA, but it is not the case for Europe and the rest of the world, for us, it is a decent time of day…! Also think that while the USA may well think of itself as the centre of the universe, IT IS NOT, the EU probably drives more sales then the USA and emerging countries like China are again soon to be bigger…! Why is it not possible that the market is driven to somewhere else other than the USA…??? Think that is a very arrogant and self serving way of thinking… ;)
Would also point out, that if scalpers are getting there hands on them, then it is simply because they are more prepared to pay the money and or sit up all night to get them, that is never going to change…!
Randomising will not work, as then people will still get the hump if they are not 1st. How about making it a loyalty thing…! I mean you order your device using your log in, and you have devices registered, simply put, the more you have spent the higher up the chain you get… And i don’t mean that in an arrogant kind of way, buy actual cash value, but by device type, the more devices, different type of devices you own, the higher up the queue you are, and that way loyalty truly is rewarded…! So someone that only owns an iPhone would be lower down a queue than someone who owns an iPhone and an iPad, and again, an iMac and or Macbook etc push you higher up the loyalty reward program…??? Or is that just rewarding sheep…!!!
Lets face it, you are never going to please all the people all the time, and to make everyone happy on launch day you would need to make 30,000,000 of the things, and we all know that is never gonna happen on a device that is unproven, hell they don’t even do it with the iPhone….!
In the meantime, your opinion is only your opinion and is not really worth a lot in the grand scheme of things… But then you are only really interested in driving ad revenue most of the time anyway…!
I couldn’t agree more. My April 13 MacBook order for a Space Grey base model has jus shipped out of Shanghai, despite non-Apple retail outlets receiving stock three weeks ago here in UK. That’s bad.
Noon would be a very bad timing as most people have to work at that time. I think midnight is perfect for most people as u are at home and its not too late exept you are a baker or something like this. You also have to consider other countries in other time zones and how convenient the timeing is for them.
The writer of this article probably did not realized that the world is round – and is divided in 24 time zones. Means that whatever time Apple is choosing there will always be an ‘unpleasant’ time for ordering….
Who said Apple had an ordering problem that needed solving?
Simpler solution…..
Sign up to order after event, even choose your watch at that moment.
– Tells apple what watch is most popular.
Send out waves of order codes. “You can order when you get an email.”
– rewards those who are loyal that way.
– then have a normal public launch after all the pre order pressure is off.
Clearly Samsung is the true innovator today. I’ll bet if you want a truckload of S6 devices delivered to you tomorrow morning they could make it happen. (OK, so I’m trying to be funny). But seriously, other than the fact that Apple is bumping up against the laws of physics in terms of trying to meet overwhelming demand while remaining competitive and dealing with finite manufacturing resources, this is a problem that will literally take years to solve. For example, they could have spent a few more months making watches and started shipping them in August, but this would put them at a competitive disadvantage. I think the newest challenge – affecting a lot of how Apple functions today – is China. While we were all buying our products in the middle of the night, it was midday in China (and early morning in UK and Europe, 5pm in Australia). Most of the complaining is coming from North American customers who were clearly in the minority compared to the rest of the world when competing to purchase the products. Bottom line: demand for Apple products (at launch) is orders of magnitude grater than any other products ever produced in human history and they are among the most complex consumer products ever made as well. I’d say they are doing a pretty good job. (I am in Canada and managed to receive 2 out of 4 watches on day one that I ordered at launch, and I am happy).