At the moment the only way one can get their hands on an Apple Watch is to place an order online, although given the demand for the device, customers will have to end up waiting until June/July before they receive their order. Now the good news is that if you’d rather pick up the device in an Apple Store, you might not have to wait much longer.
In a recent trip to China, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook had reportedly told Apple employees that Apple’s retail stores should begin carrying the device by June. This is not an official quote so we suggest you not get your hopes up just yet. However this seems to corroborate earlier reports in which Apple’s retail chief Angela Ahrendts stated that the Apple Watch will remain an online exclusive through May, so a June availability makes sense.
Assuming that the reports are true, we’re not sure what the stock levels will be like at launch. Like we said online orders are now seeing shipping times in June and July in certain cases, so will the stock for the Apple store be separate from the online order? Or will Apple work to fulfill online orders first before stocking their retail store?
In the meantime during Cook’s trip to China, he also revealed that one of the reasons he was in China was to work out the details on how to get Apple Pay up and running in the country. Previously Cook had expressed interest in launching the service in China, claiming that the country was considered to be a key market.
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