Apple Orders More Than 5 Million Watches For Its Initial Release

The buzz around the Apple Watch continues to grow, with Apple CEO Tim Cook promising its launch in April. Marketers are watching the sales projections closely as the product’s potential popularity could provide a powerful new channel for advertising to consumers.

The Wall Street Journal has reported Apple has ordered between five and six million devices to be produced in preparation for the product’s launch. This figure puts the expected demand for Apple’s first wearable device in a similar place to the company’s initial expectations for the original iPad.

Many technology experts expect Apple’s smartwatch sales to dominate the market over wearables from other manufacturers. If the company is correct in its five to six million initial sales projection, it would greatly exceed the 720,000 smartwatches powered by Android wear that were shipped in the last six months of 2014, according to data from research firm Canalys. However, it is yet to be seen whether or not the Apple Watch will actually be as popular upon its release as the company projects.

There are many players competing in this space. According to Allied Market Research, the smartwatch market is expected to be worth $32.9 billion by 2020, growing at an annual rate of 67.6 percent, so it’s no surprise that a multitude of companies are involved. South Korea’s LG, for one, has unveiled an “all-metal luxury smartwatch” in an attempt to broaden the appeal of its wearable devices as a fashion item, in advance of the release of the highly-anticipated Apple Watch. The electronics giant is billing the device as a “luxury timepiece” and the “perfect fashion accessory” for men and women. The LG Watch Urbane features a 1.3 inch plastic touchscreen display and runs on Google’s Android Wear operating system. Although it is being branded as a luxury product, some analysts feel that this is inaccurate as it is being advertised as a mass market device.

Back to Apple, the company will be initially selling three different models of its product. There will be the entry-level Apple Watch sport model, the mid-level Apple Watch, and the high-end Apple Watch Edition featuring an 18-karat gold casing. Although the entry-level version will start at $349, Apple has not yet announced the pricing for the two higher end models.

Apple has set its production plans based on its forecast of demand for the new product, however, the company will quickly adjust these plans if the sales do not match the projections. Suppliers have said that Apple adjusts its “plan of record” more often and quicker than any other consumer-electronics company. Although Apple’s production of between five and six million devices greatly outnumbers the total shipping of competing smartwatches, the company has declined to comment on these numbers.

To date, the high bar of success for any individual smartwatch manufacturer has been Pebble, which shipped 1 million devices between its launch in 2013 and the beginning of this year. Based on the overall popularity of Apple products and the high level of advance interest in the Apple Watch, it seems likely that the company will become a leader in this space upon its release, although only time will tell for sure.