Consumer Electronics

Best Buy To Sell Apple Watch

Best Buy had its Black Friday summer sale as well as a disappointing quarter.  It now has another plan to improve its prospects. Best Buy will begin to sell Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Watch, which has had sales problems as well. Adding two struggling brands together may not produce a sum for success. However, Apple needs this opportunity to distribute Watch through this large retailer.

Best Buy announced:

Starting Aug. 7, Best Buy will be the first national retailer, other than Apple Stores, where customers can buy the Apple Watch. It will begin to arrive in more than 100 Best Buy stores and will also be available on BestBuy.com. Another 200 of our stores will have the Apple Watch in time for holiday shopping.

Sales of Watch were probably not good in the first quarter during which its was available. Apple decided not to break out unit sales or revenue for the new product.

Holiday sales probably won’t drive Watch sales higher, either. Most Apple products post their best success in the days and early weeks after they are released. And, Watch will almost certainly not be upgraded between now and October.

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Apple’s new iPhone will overshadow the sales of all other Apple products in the last four months of the year. The iPhone 6S, which may be called the iPhone 7, will be released in September, according to educated forecasts. The new smartphone will be Apple’s best chance at explosive revenue growth over the holidays. Watch may get very little promotion

One of Best Buy’s problems is that it cannot release new products any faster than Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) or even Walmart (NYSE: WMT). If Apple wants any large Watch sales over the holidays, it will have to increase its distribution to at least these two huge retailers. Otherwise its will handicap Watch sales. Best Buy may be the first to announce a deal with Apple but it will soon be joined by these others.

 

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