Apple (AAPL) Watch Pre-Orders Already Outnumber Android Wear's Annual Sales
— -- Estimates are already hinting that Apple Watch pre-orders may have hit one million units this weekend, surpassing the number of Android Wear sold last year.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Watch pre-orders began on Friday in select countries, but one estimate says already that 957,000 people in the U.S. alone ordered the device on the first day.
The company that produced that report, Slice Intelligence, referred to their panel of two million online shoppers and found that 9,080 people in that panel had pre-ordered the Apple Watch this past Friday. If the company's estimates are correct, their figure already surpasses the more than 720,000 Android Wear devices that sold last year, according to another research firm Canalys, which released its report in February.
Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray & Co. senior research analyst, called Slice Intelligence’s estimate “optimistic,” but Apple Watch’s launch is still strong. Munster estimates Apple will ship close to one million Apple Watches by April 24, around which time he estimates Apple will have about 50 percent of the wearables market.
“We’re a little bit more measured,” he said. “But no matter how you cut it, it’s a good launch.”
Jaimee Minney, vice president of marketing and public relations for Slice Intelligence, told ABC News she wasn't surprised with the early pre-order estimates for the highly anticipated wrist device.
In other Slice Intelligence research, Apple users were "far underrepresented" in the smartwatch market, even though Apple customer demographics were very similar to those of the smartwatch market.
"Apple users were waiting for the Apple watch, so when we saw this huge surge in demand, we were not surprised at all," she said.
Meanwhile, Apple has so far remained silent on how many pre-orders it received.
Tim Coulling, Canalys senior analyst, agreed that he wasn't surprised if Apple Watch pre-orders have already surpassed Android Wear device sales. Most recent examples of Android Wear devices sell for around $199.99 and up and include the ASUS Zenwatch, Moto 360, Sony SmartWatch 3, as well as Samsung and LG devices.
"There’s a lot of anticipation around the product. It’s far more advanced in terms of functionality," Coulling told ABC News. "Apple’s brand is a very fashionable brand so it’s likely that people will buy the product as a watch as well as a smartwatch."
But, Coulling said, he doesn't expect Apple Watch sales to reach the same levels of those of the iPhone and iPad.
"There isn’t really an overriding reason to buy a smartwatch right now at the moment," he said. "An iPhone is an essential communication device, like a smartphone. A tablet or the iPad is a computing device. A lot of people don’t even wear watches because they have a smartphone all the time."
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
