One of the most anticipated moments of the tech world this spring is the release of the Apple Watch. Fans have expected the device for years. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the device last October during his latest keynote. And it looks like it's going to be a successful sale.
Apple has ordered between five and six million Apple Watches from its Asia-based company, Bidness Etc. reported on Wednesday. Apple currently plans to release three different versions of the Apple Watch: The Apple Watch, The Apple Watch Sport and the Apple Watch Edition. According to an anonymous source, at least 50 percent of the order is made up of Apple Watch Sport, and a third of the remaining orders are for the Apple Watch. All of the watches are made by Quanta Computer, a production company from Taiwan.
While this is certainly a notable number of orders for any device, it's fairly low when compared to past products. Cook told the Register that Apple had sold 10 million iPhone 6es during the first weekend. However, the iPhone was a well-established gadget with a reputation at this point. A better comparison would be to when Apple released the iPad. While there were many who were skeptical of the device at the time, Apple users bought more than a million iPads within the first month of its release, which was a record number of sales for a first-edition Apple device.
If we take all of this into account, it's clear that Apple has high hopes for this device. It's the first new gadget Apple has released since the iPad hit the market in 2010. But will consumers respond in the way that Apple expects? Only time will tell.
