Apple looks to iPhone, not Watch, for sales

Likely won’t give out Watch sales figures with earnings report

Apple’s goal for Tuesday: to have such incredible iPhone numbers, people will forget all about Apple Watch.

The iconic device maker will announce earnings, and it is likely to have higher iPhone sales than the same time a year ago, showing growth in an 8- year- old category.

It’s that new category Apple isn’t expected to talk about. Before it released the Apple Watch in April, Apple said it wouldn’t announce sales statistics for the device. That was a different tack for Apple, which announces quarterly figures for the iPhone, iPad and computers, and usually trumpets first weekend sales.

That was to lower expectations, says Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray.

“This is part of building a new category,” Munster says. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Many analysts have issued reports on Apple Watch sales, and they haven’t been positive. The Apple Watch isn’t an Apple- size hit. Yet.

Munster estimates Apple has sold 3 million watches — 2 million in preorders shipped in April, and 1 million since.

Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group, says the Apple Watch is doing fine and has quickly become the bestselling smartwatch to date, outselling the Pebble and watches from LG, Motorola and Samsung.

While Apple now sells massive amounts of iPhones, it too started off slow. In its first quarter available, Apple sold 1.1 million iPhones, at a time when the initial model sold for $ 599.

In 2008, when Apple lowered the price of the iPhone, the product took off, and the company sold 11.8 million phones that year.

For the new quarter, Munster expects to see shipments of about 49 million iPhones, which would be slightly higher than the same quarter a year ago.

“We think investors will be happy,” he says.

BRENT LEWIN, BLOOMBERG Sales of the iPhone, like the Watch, started off slow before taking off in 2008.