Apple shipped six million Apple Watches in the last quarter of 2016, a new report claims — noting that this represented nearly 80 percent of total global smartwatch earnings.
In terms of Apple revenue, this equates to more than $2.6 billion out of the company’s total revenues of between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion for the quarter — or approximately 5 percent of Apple’s revenue for the three months.
Provided that Canalys’ figures are correct, this would have been a tremendous quarter for the Apple Watch. The firm suggests that Apple shipped 11.9 million smartwatches last year, which means that over half of these sold during the holiday quarter. It also suggests that Apple’s comparatively massive sales drove overall smartwatch shipments to 9 million units in the quarter, up 12 percent from a year earlier.
Canalys’ conclusions paint a far more optimistic picture than other Apple Watch reports in the past. An IDC report published late last year suggested that Q3 Apple Watch sales dropped 70 percent compared to last year. If both sets of numbers are true, it would mean that Apple had an abysmal quarter for the Apple Watch, followed by its best ever.
That’s not out of the question, but it suggests that something doesn’t totally add up.
Apple, for its part, is keeping quiet. The company continues to insist that the Apple Watch is doing great, but hasn’t released figures to say how well this is.
During Apple’s recent earnings call, Tim Cook said that demand for the Apple Watch was so strong over the holiday quarter it couldn’t make enough units, although it still didn’t reveal how many it sold.
Source: Digitimes
