Representing more than 20 percent of all the units sold around the world, Apple announced that more than 1 million of its smart watches have been purchased in China.
Founder and managing director of Shanghai-based research firm RedTech Advisors, Michael Clendenin, stated that the Apple Watch is now easier to purchase in the country, which prompted its sales to skyrocket to more than one million in just 17 weeks.
After this sudden rise, sales are slowing down now but is expected to go back up again with the holidays just around the corner. As of August 23, the official number of Apple Watch users is 1.07 million, according to RedTech’s latest quarterly survey.
Clendenin also stated that this number comes from watches that are activated, not just shipped, using RedTech’s smart device tracker with TalkingData. They also discovered that the origin of 30 percent of the Apple Watches came from either the grey market or overseas.
Apple believes that their sales for the first nine weeks exceeded their expectations and were found to be more than the sales of the iPhone and iPad when they were first released.
The stainless steel model of the Apple Watch, priced around 4,188 yuan to 4,588 yuan, is owned by 25 per cent of the mainland users. Only two percent of current Apple Watch owners plan to purchase the 18-carat gold-encased edition, within the next year, which costs 74,800 yuan to 88,800 yuan.
