With Apple prepping up for the April retail date of the highly anticipated Apple Watch, the tech giant has reportedly requested its Asian suppliers to produce over five million Apple Watch units.
According to the Wall Street Journal, between five and six million units of the basic Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition were ordered by the company. The Apple Watch Edition is the high-end variant of the timepiece which comes with 18-karat gold casing.
The Apple Watch Sport is expected to go on sale for a starting price of $349 and reportedly comprises the largest share of the order. No exact pricing details have been released for the other models, although the Gold Edition is expected to be sold for thousands of dollars, accounting for only a smaller percentage of the order. It is also likely to be released as among the priciest products that Apple has sold, possibly going beyond the $4,000 price tag of the Mac Pro computer.
Despite relatively few orders for the more expensive Apple Watch variant, Apple will reportedly be producing over one million units of the Gold Edition per month when the second quarter begins.
According to analysts, there will be a significant increase in demand for high-end watches, especially in China where considerably high Apple sales have been evident.
Apple previously announced that safes will be installed in its retail outlets for such pricey timepieces to be securely stored.
The Apple Watch will come with sapphire crystal displays and will be available in only two sizes- 38 mm and 42 mm.
Following the announcement of the smartwatch during the September launching of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned that the wearable will be set for an official release in April.
Meanwhile, another big news for the tech giant is its strong sales for its newest iPhones with which smartphone sales have increased by up to 29.5 percent in the last three months of 2014. This allowed Apple to rake in $74.6 billion with net income greatly increasing from $13.1 billion to $18 billion within 2014’s last quarter.
Similarly, it is expected that the Apple Watch will be associated with high demands, especially with the wearable becoming the company’s first original device to be released after almost five years.
However, several expected features have been removed from the Watch’s final version; these include the capabilities for blood pressure monitoring and stress tracking.
Apple reportedly dropped these functions as a result of its suppliers underperforming when it comes to meeting standards. Difficulties in keeping up with government policies and "over-complicated ideas" were also cited to be the causes for the Apple Watch to have fewer features.
