Tim Cook claims the Apple Watch is ‘doing great’ following a report from research company IDC which claimed sales of the smartwatch last quarter were down 71% year on year.
In an email to Reuters, the Apple CEO said: “Our data shows that Apple Watch is doing great and looks to be one of the most popular holiday gifts this year.”
His comments come after the IDC report claimed the Apple Watch was struggling to gain traction due to “an aging lineup and an unintuitive user interface.”
The Apple Watch Series 2 launched in September, bringing with it a host of new features including a more intuitive watchOS 3 and waterproofing.
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According to Cook, the latest update has paid off, as the device’s sell-through, which measures how many units have been sold to consumers, rather than those sitting on shelves, reached a new high.
In his email, Cook added: “Sales growth is off the charts. In fact, during the first week of holiday shopping, our sell-through of Apple Watch was greater than any week in the product’s history. And as we expected, we’re on track for the best quarter ever for Apple Watch.”
Despite his positive comments, Cook decided to withold any specific sales numbers, so at this point there’s no hard data to back up his claims.
Apple is, in fact, yet to provide any data on sales of its smartwatch, which is classed as “other product”, along with iPods and Apple TV, in its latest earnings report.
The company’s annual revenue declined year on year for the first time since 2001 this year, falling from $233.7 billion in 2015 to $217 billion in 2016.
Commenting on the “other products” classification, analyst Bob O’Donnell told Reuters: “While I’m not surprised that there is a good week, there are still, I think, significant concerns about the category.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
