Apple Suppliers Building More Than 5 Million Watches for Launch
Submitted by Anders Batten on
The Wall Street Journal had a lot to say about the Apple Watch this week beginning with a report about Apple's plans to make a "state-of-the-art health-monitoring device" that would track everything from blood pressure to stress levels. Unnamed sources said that Apple had to scrap a lot of the planned health features for the watch after some of them failed to work reliably. Instead of being able to release the watch as an all-in-one medical device Apple had to go back t the drawing board and find a new identity for its first wearable device. So far Apple has touted the watch as a fitness tracker, a new way to communicate and even as a fashion statement.
The WSJ also filed a report on Tuesday claiming that Apple has asked its suppliers to make a "combined five to six million units of its three Apple Watch models during the first quarter" before the official launch in April. The $349 entry-level Sports model will make up half of the watches assembled, while the basic Apple Watch model will account for one-third of the watches shipped, according to sources familiar with the matter. The initial run of the high-end 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition will be small before increasing in the second quarter.
