Apple building up to six million Watches ahead of launch

apple watch home screen

Apple has commission its suppliers to build five to six million Watch units in the first quarter of 2015, ahead of its April release, The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported Tuesday.

Taiwan-based Quanta Computer Inc is the main assembler of the wrist-worn device. Half of the first-quarter production order is earmarked for the entry-level $349 Apple Watch Sport model, or about three million units.

The mid-tied Apple Watch model is expected to account for one-third of output. As for the high-end Apple Watch Edition in 18-karat gold casing, Apple is expected to produce more than one million units per month in the second quarter, sources said.

Yesterday, the paper reported that the device won’t be the digital doctor it could have been because Apple scrapped a number of health-related functions from the inaugural model due to complexity and FDA requirements.

JP Morgan thinks there will be 400 million potential Watch customers by the end of the March quarter, with five percent of compatible iPhone owners potentially buying it before the end of 2015

Source: The Wall Street Journal