FELL ON ITS FACE
Apple Watch woe sullies sector: rpt.
Sales of the Apple Watch tanked by more than half in the second quarter — and the flopped gadget is dragging down the entire smartwatch category, according to a report on Thursday.
Apple shipped just 1.6 million Apple Watches during the quarter, down 55 percent from a year earlier, when the device initially launched, according to the report from IDC.
The decline was so severe that it sent the entire smartwatch industry into a tailspin, bringing it down by 32 percent overall, the market research firm said.
That’s despite sharp increases in demand for new smartwatches from manufacturers like Samsung and Lenovo, whose volume was nevertheless too small to offset carnage from the Apple Watch.
To be fair, the Apple Watch hasn’t been updated — except for the software — since its splashy launch last year. Would-be owners are likely waiting for a new hardware design expected this fall, industry experts say.
“Improvements in WatchOS are not expected until later this year, effectively stalling existing Apple Watch sales,” added Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers.
Still, the watch’s precipitous drop is a black eye for Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. The Apple Watch is believed to be the first major Apple gadget to be developed entirely under Cook’s supervision.
Meanwhile, Cook is scrambling to reverse sales declines for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, according to recent reports. Mixed reviews for Apple Music, a belated challenger to Spotify, haven’t helped, critics say.
Apple has never broken out specific sales figures for the Apple Watch, but analysts believe the company sold about 12 million of them last year.
That was a higher number than the iPhone generated during its first year. Still, iPhone sales began dropping only this year, nine years after the gadget was first unveiled by Apple founder Steve Jobs.