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TechApple

First Apple Watch sales results

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 12, 2015, 11:27 AM ET

BMO

Not knowing how many Apple Watches were available for pre-sale before they ran out on Friday, it’s impossible to say for certain how many units were sold. [See update below]. Meanwhile, we’ve learned something about the distribution of the early adopters’ orders.

Among the one in 10 respondents who told BMO Capital Markets before pre-orders began that they planned to buy an Apple Watch, their preferences were:

  • 60% aluminum ($349-$399)
  • 12% stainless steel ($449-$1,099)
  • 4% gold ($10,000-$17,000)
  • 24% undecided

.

Judging from the Sunday morning reader polls we’ve seen, the undecideds broke heavily for the mid-range ($449-$1,099) stainless steel.

The survey results we’ve seen:

9to5Mac (11,865 respondents)

  • 55.8% aluminum
  • 38.9% steel
  • 2.8% gold

.

iMore (5,204 respondents)

  • 58.8% aluminum
  • 38.9% steel
  • 2.3% gold

.

MacRumors/Forums (1,054 respondents)

  • 38.3% aluminum
  • 55.8% steel
  • 5.9% gold

.

Today’s iPhone (340 respondents)

  • 57.1% aluminum
  • 40.1% steel
  • 3.2% gold

.

Apple’s wider offerings in stainless steel — with more bands and bodies to choose from — probably helped up-sell customers, pushing them toward the higher-priced models. Note the preponderance of steel configurations on display in the company’s stores and on its website:

  • 10 aluminum (26%)
  • 20 steel (53%)
  • 8 gold (21%)

.

UPDATE: Late Sunday Slice Intelligence, drawing on data from a pool of 2 million online shoppers, estimated that 957,000 people in the U.S. pre-ordered an Apple Watch on Friday, spending an average of $503.83 per watch. By their count, 62% chose the aluminum model.

  • Those who chose aluminum spent $382.83 per watch
  • Those who chose steel spent $707.04 per watch

.

Note that Slice’s estimates do not include pre-orders from Europe or China. We asked three analysts to extrapolate and got three different answers. See How many Apple Watches were sold worldwide last weekend?

See also: Apple Watch (nearly) sold out in 30 minutes

Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.

About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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