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Here’s What Tim Cook Said About Apple Watch Holiday Sales

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 5, 2016, 8:44 AM ET
Apple Unveils iPhone 6
CUPERTINO, CA - SEPTEMBER 09: Apple CEO Tim Cook announces the Apple Watch during an Apple special event at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on September 9, 2014 in Cupertino, California. Apple unveiled the Apple Watch wearable tech and two new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Photograph by Justin Sullivan — Getty Images

At a Town Hall meeting at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, Tim Cook gave staffers a bit more detail about Apple Watch sales than he gave analysts last week. According to 9to5Mac‘s Mark Gurman:

“Cook also called the Apple Watch one of the ‘hottest’ holiday gifts, and he claimed that sales of the device exceeded those of the original iPhone in its first holiday quarter in 2007.”

That sounds better than it is.

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Watch sales numbers may be a closely held corporate secret, but iPhone sales are not. According to my records, Apple (APPL) sold 2,314,000 iPhones that first holiday quarter. The consensus among Fortune‘s panel of analysts was that Apple may have sold twice that many Watches last quarter. (Final average estimate: 5.12 million.)

See Gurman’s report for more details—equally vague—about everything from Apple TV sales to “far-off” products in the pipeline.

For more on Apple, watch:

Tim Cook did make one concrete, near-term promise to Apple employees: Some of them will begin moving into the new campus under construction across town before the end of January 2017.

About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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