Apple Watch Will Be Company's 'Most Profitable Product Ever' Says Analyst

By Kamal Nayan - 20 Apr '15 08:33AM

There's not any official announcement of Apple Watch sales figures, but data from market researcher Slice, which analyzed the receipt data from 2 million online shoppers estimated that Apple sold just under 1 million watches just in the US, on the first day that people could order the watch.

Reportedly, China also sold out the $20,000 gold Apple Watch Edition in less than an hour.

Now, a new market research estimates that Apple instantly sold more than 3 million units of Apple Watch.

According to market researcher Carl Howe from Think Big Analytics, Apple instantly sold more than 3 million units: 1.8 million Sports, 1.3 million Watches, and 40,000 Editions. Howe noted that the delays in shipping are more-or-less part of Apple's master plan.

"I've built a simple model that predicts that the initial run of watches was more than 3 million units and will yield Apple Watch revenues of over $2 billion for the first two weeks of sales," he wrote.

"While this figure is smaller than first weekend sales of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, it dwarfs all other smartwatch sales to date and represents a milestone in wearable sales."

"The model suggests that while Sport Watch will lead sales in volume, selling 1.8 million units through May 8, Apple Watch will actually lead in revenue during that period, garnering about $900 million versus Sport's $675 million. I also believe that Apple's decision to introduce the Edition will be validated by $500 million in sales on only 40,000 units," he added.

According to Howe, the roll-out wasn't really botched, but that Apple intended to have a significant delay between order and delivery, so it could test the market.