Early Buyers Prefer the Apple Watch Sport
Of those million or so folks who pre-ordered the Apple Watch on Friday the majority chose the starter model priced at $349 and up. According to projections from Slice Intelligence, the Apple Watch Sport accounted for two-thirds of the pre-orders while the remaining third were for the mid-priced Apple Watch.
Slice stats show that the average early buyer pre-ordered 1.3 watches indicating that a significant number of them purchased two or more. According to figures from Quartz, those who ordered the Apple Watch Sport spent at average of $382.83 while buyers of the Apple Watch paid $707.04.
Apple Watch buyers seem to think bigger is better with close to two-thirds of those pre-ordering the two less pricey models opting for the 42mm case over the 38mm case. 40% chose the Space Grey aluminum case followed by 34% for the stainless-steel version, 23% for silver aluminum and just 3% for Space Black stainless-steel.
While the Sport version of the Apple Watch offered several colorful band options, most early buyers went classic with black or white. Nearly half of those ordering the Apple Watch or the Apple Watch Sport chose the black Sport band with 16% going for the white Sport band. Another 10% picked the Milanese Loop.
Almost unnoticed in the hoopla over the Apple Watch was the debut of the latest Macbooks, which moved 48,000 units on Friday. An estimated 43% of Macbook buyers also placed a pre-order for one of the Apple Watch models. Unlike the Apple Watches, those Macbooks are ready to ship in one business day.
It’s not that surprising that Apple can sell a million of its avid fans a new device priced at $349 to $1,049 since this is the same audience that is willing to spring for a new iPhone every year. The question is whether the buyers of fine Swiss watches selling for $10,000 or more will spend the same amount on the Apple Watch.
