We wrote last week about how the media’s narrative seems to be turning against the Apple Watch, despite a lack of good evidence that the watch is “failing.” The more mainstream press finally appears to have caught up with this story, applying some actual fact and reporting to the story. And guess what? The watch is doing pretty well after all.
Re/code dug a little into Slice’s sample and found that it doesn’t include in-store purchases and is (as we speculated) US only. It also reports that the consulting houses Creative Strategies and IDC have been polling their sources in Apple’s supply chain, and find that the generally believed number of 20 million units this year is about right. Creative has a long history of leaning Apple’s way, but IDC is about as authoritative as you can get.
Also, the British Futuresource Consulting is out with research this morning that found that 20 percent of iPhone users in six countries intend to purchase an Apple watch in the next 12 months. The press materials don’t say which six countries — although the US and UK are included — nor do they say anything about methodology. And “intent to buy” and actual purchases are very different things. But the story that the Apple watch is “failing” in the market is beginning to show a lot of cracks.