You Won’t Be Able To Line Up Outside An Apple Store For The Apple Watch

It has become a tradition for Apple fans to line up outside the company’s retail stores days in advance when a new product is due to arrive. Every year we see this when the new iPhones are about to be released. We expected to see similar sights on the Apple Watch’s release day but due to supply constraints this won’t be possible. The company has confirmed that Apple Watch purchases will be online-only at least for the time being.

Many reports have suggested that Apple just doesn’t have enough units on hand for the launch to go smoothly on April 24th, apparently due to manufacturing issues that are affecting yields.

Pre-orders for the Apple Watch open up tomorrow in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US. Customers are restricted to just one unit.

The company will however allow people to head over to its stores starting tomorrow to experience its first smartwatch. They will be given a 15-minute session with the new product.

Come April 24th, don’t expect to line up outside an Apple Store. Apple’s senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores Angela Ahrendts says the company expects “strong customer demand” to exceed supply at launch.

So that’s a vague timeframe and it’s unclear when the company will start taking orders directly from customers at its stores. It just goes to show that all of the reports we have been hearing about Apple Watch’s supply issues have some truth to them after all.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Apple, Gadgets
Tags: Apple Watch, Smartwatches, Wearable Tech