One analyst says Apple Watch sales have dropped off in 2016
A recent price cut to the Apple Watch Sport hasn’t seemed to spark much renewed interest in the wearable device. According to Fortune, at least one analyst said that watch sales have dropped off significantly in 2016.
Matthew Goodman from ITG Investment Research’s says sales of the device were down 40 percent in the second fiscal quarter of 2016. The first fiscal quarter of the year ended in late December 2015.
A small sales bump
Back in March, at the special media event introducing the iPhone SE and smaller iPad Pro, Apple announced a number of new bands and a $50 price drop for the entry-level model. A 38mm version starts at $299.
But the price drop didn’t cause a stampede to stores:
According to Goodman, whose company uses proprietary data to track Apple Watch sales, the price cut was beneficial for Apple. In the first week following the price cut, U.S. sales doubled compared to the previous week, he cited in his note. However, Goodman added that sales declined to their earlier levels just a week later.
Just to note, all of these sales estimates are just well-educated guesses as Apple has chosen not to release specific figures relating to the number of watches sold.
A new version ahead?
The "Apple Watch 2" could arrive sometime this fall.
The next-generation Apple Watch is rumored to arrive sometime in the fall, along with the “iPhone 7.”
Just last week, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expects that the device will offer “spec improvements with limited changes to form factor design.” That’s akin to the iPhone release cycle that only sees a major hardware change every two years.
While that might disappoint some potential buyers, the slow processing capabilities of the Apple Watch is one of its major problems. I’m glad to hear Apple is apparently focusing on making improvements in that area. The hardware doesn’t need an enormous amount of tweaking – at least for now.
A recent poll of current Apple Watch owners said that around two-thirds are interested in making the upgrade to the new model. In the same survey, both owners and non-owners said that cost was the major issue in not purchasing the device.
