Did Apple Send Mixed Messages About Its Apple Watch Launch?

Some customers were confused about the availability of the Apple Watch this weekend. In a March 9 press release, Apple stated the following:

• "Apple Watch…will be available on Friday, April 24 to customers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US."
• "Beginning April 10 in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US, Apple Watch will be available for preview, try-on by appointment at Apple's retail stores, and available for pre-order through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com)."
• "On April 24, Apple Watch will be available online or by reservation in Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers in China and Japan. "
• "Customers who purchase online or in-store from Apple will be offered Personal Setup to customize and pair Apple Watch with their iPhone."

In its TV commercial (which aired nationally in America during many primetime programs), Apple heavily promoted the April 24 release date but made no mention of online orders. This made Benzinga wonder: Is Apple Inc. AAPL to blame for the confusion? "I think this one's a pretty simple one in that demand was a lot higher than expected and they sold a lot more online than they thought they were gonna sell and essentially…put the availability in store at zero," Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Benzinga. Moorhead said Apple could have been "a little bit clearer" on it, but he (like most analysts Benzinga spoke to) assumes that Apple underestimated the demand when it issued that press release.

Related Link: Apple Watch Ignites Fintech Community, Inspires New Apps

Confusion Remains…

Sean Udall, CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and author of The TechStrat Report, maintained his view that the watch would outstrip demand. But even he thought there was a way to purchase an Apple Watch in store. "I thought the only way to get an Apple Watch today was if you already went into a store, made a reservation and got a fitting or something like that," he told Benzinga. "I thought I remembered reading that from something official [from] Apple."

…But Many Analysts Don't Care

"To me, picture Microsoft wishing people were having this discussion about how hard it is to get a Microsoft product," Cody Willard, chairman of Scutify (a financial social network) and Futr (a futuristic messaging app), told Benzinga. "BlackBerry can only dream about consumers being confused and/or upset that people can't purchase their product as quickly as they like."

Million Pre-Ordered?

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry echoed the sentiment of those who believe the watch far outpaced demand. He felt that Apple may have initially expected sales that were on par with other smartwatches (no more than a few hundred thousand units). "Apple may have made an internal assumption when it issued the press release," he said. Chowdhry's research indicates that Apple could have pre-sold as many as 2.5 million units during the first three days of the pre-order campaign. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.