After its initial launch in nine countries in April, followed by seven more late last month and a handful of other countries launching later this week, Apple Watch will arrive for customers in New Zealand for the first time on July 31st. Apple has quietly made the announcement on an updated product page within its Apple Store iOS app, as pictured above.
The launch in New Zealand will follow a few countries going live later this week on July 17th, including the Netherlands, Sweden and Thailand. The latest Apple Watch launch saw the device released in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan last month, while the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan had access to the device at launch back in April.
Apple hasn’t made an official announcement for what will be the fourth wave of Apple Watch launch countries, and it’s unclear at this point if others will join New Zealand on the 31st (but we’re on the lookout for others).
Customers in New Zealand will be able to purchase Apple Watch starting 7:01am local time on July 31.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Sometimes I just don’t understand Apple… how can a Country like New Zealand have Apple Watch before other countries with much more population?
Probably because literally half of the country have iPhones. i think it was 48% last time there was a study.
Keep in mind that all logistics, shipping etc is done from Australia (Which is a launch country)
All Apple products for NZ are shipped from Aus so once Aus supply is matured, they naturally overflow to NZ. (Ive yet to actually see the launch date on any of the NZ Apple pages though? Is there a link for this)
They also have to deal with retailers as well given that Apple has no retail presence in New Zealand given that is the way most people purchase their computers through – Apple will want the retailers to purchase a steady stream and retailers who care cautious and not want to end up with a back log of products will prefer to have less in stock thus some sort of agreement is arrived at. Personally I find the whole Apple Watch too much of a 1.0 product at this stage and difficult to find that its usefulness really reflects the price that is being charged.
Don’t you think there’s a reason they’re doing it in NZ?
Richratters is right, I remember reading a report about NZ with smartphone penetration at the moment being OVER 100%. Where Kiwi’s actually own more than one smartphone each!
Apple Watch is iPhone’s most expensive accessory, so they’re launching somewhere with not a lot of population, but high penetration. Makes total sense.
Well I’ve never doubt about the reasons regarding NZ… I understand and agree with all your points. What I don’t understand is why Apple is taking so long to enter so many other countries. Specially now that Apple is catching up the orders with short delivery times. And there’s also some (silly?) reports saying that Apple is not selling so well the Apple watch…
But OK… after all I believe that for sure there is a reason for that. Maybe Apple is selling better then expected, or didn’t built enough watches for the existing demand… there’s nothing new here for a new product launch.
Apple watches new countries are quite easy to predict. They always come to countries that have siri on current iOS version. NZ has now. SO for example Norge comes after iOS 9. If your county does not have siri, well though luck. Well we are one of those, so coming 2015 may not mean anything. It is just an ad ..
NOT ALL Apple products for NZ ship from Australia. Some ship from China. My MacBook Pro shipped from Gangzhou in 2011.
New Zealand is certainly known as a tech test market but that hardly applies in this case.
Not to mention, this story is out of date. The date in the app was later removed and we’re back to just the main web presence saying “Coming in 2015.”
The “rollback” as picked up by local MSM: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/70285805/apple-watch-nz-release-wound-back-as-company-removes-date-from-ios-store