Apple has reportedly told its manufacturers to produce up to six million Apple Watch units for its first three months on sale. The company's first smartwatch is set to go on sale in April, starting from $349 (around £230).
The Wall Street Journal claims Apple has instructed its Asian suppliers to produce between five and six million of the devices for its first quarter. Half of that order is reportedly for the entry-level Sport model, whilst the mid-tier model accounts for a third. Orders are described as "relatively small" for the high-end Apple Watch Edition with the gold casing, but Apple expects to produce more than a million a month of these from the second quarter onwards, the newspaper reports.
To proivde some sense of scale, Apple sold just over six million of the original iPhone over its entire lifespan. Its latest sales figures put iPhone unit sales at 74.5 million for the last quarter, and the company sold 21 million iPads over that same period.
Apple has yet to announce full pricing for the Apple Watch. The Sports model with the plastic strap will start from £349, but the WSJ speculates that the premium Apple Watch Edition could become one of the most expensive products the company has ever sold, even surpassing the $4,000 price tag of the spherical Mac Pro. The newspaper reports there is pent-up demand in China for the luxury watch.
The company first announced the Watch last autumn, but has been refining the product ever since. The company was reportedly working hard to improve the battery life of the device, but CEO Tim Cook recently conceded that users would have to charge the smartwatch every night.
The WSJ also reports that Apple has been forced to drop some of the sensors it originally planned to include in the device because of inconsistent performance, including one that was set to measure the conductivity of the skin to gauge stress levels.