Market research firm IDC is speculating that previous reports that the iWatch is a bust may not be true after all, the Wall Street Journal reports. In fact, if their numbers are correct, it actually exceeded all expectations. IDC announced that the iWatch is second only to Fitbit in terms of total units shipped.
Fitbit holds a strong lead at 4.4 million units while the iWatch raked in a very respectable 3.6 million units. This means that Apple generated at the least $1 billion even if all sales were for the lower end model only, at $349 each, which is not the case.
Apple is mum about its own sales but, when compared to the first quarter performance upon release of the iPad in 2010 and iPhone in 2007, the iWatch is doing very, very well. 3.27 million iPads were sold in the first quarter upon its release and Apple recorded sales for 1.12 million iPhone units in the same period during their respective years of release.
This is a complete rebuttal of earlier reports which say that the iWatch is a flop. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook admits that the iWatch surpassed its own projections and that naysayers like Slice Data, which announced a 90% drop in iWatch sales, have the wrong numbers.
IDC research manager for wearables Ramon Llamas also predicts that Apple will be the standard-bearer for wearable devices. He says, "Fairly or not, Apple will become the stick against which other wearables are measured, and competing vendors need to stay current or ahead of Apple."
He adds, "Now that Apple is officially a part of the wearables market, everyone will be watching to see what other wearable devices it decides to launch, such as smart glasses or hearables."
Additionally, Best Buy in the US announced that their supply cannot currently cope with the demand for iWatches. It planned to offer the watch in only 300 stores by the holidays but this has recently changed, according to the Daily Mail UK. Best Buy now wants all 1,050 of its stores to have the iWatch by the end of next month.
