London,April 11: If you were hoping to get an Apple Watch on your wrist when it was scheduled to start shipping later this month, then you’re probably out of luck.
Online pre-orders for the Watch began at 12:01 a.m. PT (3:01 a.m. ET) on Friday. But all variations of the new device it comes in two sizes, made of three materials, and with a host of band choices sold out online in under six hours, according to 9to5Mac.
Apple’s website showed that, as of Friday afternoon, new orders of any of the ten models of the Apple Watch Sport will not ship until June. Some of the 20 models of the stainless steel version, which start at $549, will ship in four to six weeks, while other variations will also ship in June.
The variations of the Edition model, which is made of gold and starts at $10,000 but goes up to a whopping $17,000 (don’t worry — the shipping is free), won’t ship until June.
As MacRumors reports, some versions of the stainless steel and Edition models showed delayed delivery dates as soon as they went on sale Friday — suggesting that before the pre-ordering process even began, they weren’t ready to ship by April 24, the originally announced ship date. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores, said in a press release published before the online pre-ordering began that “strong customer demand will exceed our supply at launch.”
Ahrendts added that the Watch will only be sold online “during the initial launch period,” though people can see and try on the devices in stores.
Being sold out is no indication that the Watch, Apple’s first new product category under CEO Tim Cook, is a resounding success.
As Ed Bott, a tech journalist and author, tweeted Friday morning, Microsoft also sold out of its Surface RT tablet when it came out in October 2012. The Surface RT was a failure, and Microsoft had to take a $900 million charge on unsold inventory just months after it went on sale.
