It’s the leaked internal memos that make life interesting.
For those of you looking to snag an Apple Watch, a leaked internal memo from Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts to Apple Store employees states that Apple Watch orders will continue to be taken exclusively online through May and that deliveries will begin April 24th as planned.
Per the memo:
“The feedback from customers is overwhelmingly positive. They are excited about Apple Watch, and your teams are creating fantastic experiences for them. Customers who pre-ordered will start receiving deliveries next Friday as planned, and I know you will do a great job helping set them up.
Many of you have been asking if we will have the Apple Watch available in stores on April 24 for walk-in purchases. As we announced last week, due to high global interest combined with our initial supply, we are only taking orders online right now. I’ll have more updates as we get closer to in-store availability, purpose we expect this to continue through the month of May.”
As of now, it looks like walk-in purchases of the Apple Watch won’t be available until at least June, and product reservations for in-store pickup are not available yet. As such, it appears that the famous lines to snag a cool new Apple product may not emerge on the Apple Watch’s April 24th launch day. Instead, ordering an Apple Watch online might be the route to take.
For those of you looking to line up, Ahrendts ensured in her memo to retail employees that not all Apple products will launch the same way as the Apple Watch, adding that both Apple and its customers love the long lines and that there will be many more of them to come in the future.
“I know this is a different experience for our customers, and has changed for you as well. Are we going to launch every product this way from now on? No. We all love those blockbuster Apple product launch days and there will be many more to come. They’re the times where you, our teams, shine. And our customers love them as well!”
Perhaps realizing that a fair number of customers won’t be receiving their Apple Watch units by the April 24th launch date, Apple changed the tagline on its website on late Wednesday to read “the Watch is coming” instead of “available 4.24.15” as it previously showed. Apple Watch pre-orders began on April 10th at 12:01 AM Pacific and sold out in less than six hours.
As always, let us know what your thoughts on the Apple Watch and the shopping process are in the comments.