TIM COOK: The Apple Watch will finally be in stores 'by June' (AAPL) | ||
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After a botched rollout due to supply chain issues, the Apple Watch will finally be available to buy in stores "by June," 9to5Mac reports. After being sold exclusively online since its launch, Apple's debut smartwatch will soon be available to buy in the Cupertino company's retail outlets, CEO Tim Cook reportedly told Apple employees in China. The launch of the Apple Watch has been plagued with difficulties, with demand far outstripping supply. Potential customers could only order it online, and it went out of stock within hours, with many buyers waiting weeks for their device to arrive. Apple subsequently removed the official "launch" date from its website. This unusual launch strategy caused widespread confusion among consumers unable to understand why Apple's latest product was unable to actually purchase in any of its stores, with one source telling us that Apple retail staff largely viewed the launch as a massive screw-up. Employees are being forced to turn away eager customers again and again. Even now, customers can book appointments to try the device on in-store — but then have to go home to actually order it. It later emerged that this wasn't down to Apple misjudging the launch — but because of a serious technical fault with a key component from one of Apple's suppliers. The "taptic engines" that provide vibrating feedback to the Apple Watch wearer produced by AAC Technologies Holdings were defective, forcing Apple to switch to another supplier. But the new supplier couldn't ramp up production immediately, causing delays. As such, when retail chief Angela Ahrendts told Apple Store employees that the company had made the "hard decision" not to have the device available for purchase in stores, it wasn't because Apple screwed up — it was because AAC had let them down. Tim Cook's comments to Chinese Apple employees indicate that the company has finally managed to overcome this hurdle, and will soon have sufficient stock to finally allow walk-in purchases. Speaking more broadly about the Apple Watch, the CEO said that "the Watch could not be going better, we're working really hard on making more," according to 9to5Mac. Issues with the launch hasn't stopped the Apple Watch enjoying extremely strong sales (even if customers aren't actually getting the devices they ordered). It's been estimated that the Apple Watch sold more units in a single day than Google managed in an entire year with its own smartwatch software, Android Wear. And respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple's smartwatch saw more than 2.3 million pre-orders in total, dwarfing Google's 720,000 total sales in 2014. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Flashback: Here's how Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch  | ||
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Tristram Hunt drops out of the Labour leadership race | ||
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Tristram Hunt has ruled himself out of the running to succeed Ed Miliband as Labour leader. He confirmed on Wednesday that he "will not be entering the race". Hunt offered his support to Liz Kendall to be the next party leader. This story is being updated. Click here to refresh. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 11 amazing facts about Vladimir Putin  | ||
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The Greek government just admitted it won't make the next IMF payment without a bailout deal | ||
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Greece is due to make a €305 million ($339.07 million, £218.64 million) disbursement on June 5, followed by three others in the following two weeks. Greece had to use its special drawing rights (SDRs) held at the IMF to make the last payment. — the four coming up in June are twice as large as that one, and come after another round of pension and salary payments. Parliamentary speaker and Syriza politician Nikos Filis made the admission on TV, according to Reuters: "Now is the moment that negotiations are coming to a head. Now is the moment of truth, on June 5," parliamentary speaker Nikos Filis, from the ruling Syriza party, told ANT1 television. "If there is no deal by then that will address the current funding problem, they won't get any money," he said. France's La Tribune is also reporting that the government now knows it won't be able to make the June 5 payment, calling that the new "critical date" by which time a deal must be reached. If it's not managed by then, Greece will default. The government's spokesman didn't seem to be too worried about the possibility: That's likely to be just bluster, since any failure to make contracted debt repayments could result in the Greek banking sector being cut off by the European Central Bank (ECB). Athens has seemed more confident that a deal is coming in recent days. An agreement would unlock billions of euros for the cash-strapped government, and allow them to cover many of their upcoming debt payments, at least for a few months. This week, a leak to Greek newspaper To Vima suggested that the European Commission had offered a deal, the terms of which sounded much less stringent than expected. Quick after, finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said that Greece will have a deal within a week. That doesn't sit well with what we heard from the IMF over the weekend — with a leaked memo suggesting that though progress had been made on some issues, there were still major areas of contention. If the negotiators can bridge those gaps in two weeks, then Greece will get more than enough cash to make the upcoming IMF payments. If it can't, then then the crunch is coming. Here's the whole timeline of payments coming up, courtesy of HSBC:
Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how Floyd Mayweather spends his millions  | ||
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It looks like the Greek government will miss its next big payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without a bailout deal — a move that would push Greece into technical default.
TIM COOK: The Apple Watch will finally be in stores 'by June' (AAPL) | ||
| | ||
After a botched rollout due to supply chain issues, the Apple Watch will finally be available to buy in stores "by June," 9to5Mac reports. After being sold exclusively online since its launch, Apple's debut smartwatch will soon be available to buy in the Cupertino company's retail outlets, CEO Tim Cook reportedly told Apple employees in China. The launch of the Apple Watch has been plagued with difficulties, with demand far outstripping supply. Potential customers could only order it online, and it went out of stock within hours, with many buyers waiting weeks for their device to arrive. Apple subsequently removed the official "launch" date from its website. This unusual launch strategy caused widespread confusion among consumers unable to understand why Apple's latest product was unable to actually purchase in any of its stores, with one source telling us that Apple retail staff largely viewed the launch as a massive screw-up. Employees are being forced to turn away eager customers again and again. Even now, customers can book appointments to try the device on in-store — but then have to go home to actually order it. It later emerged that this wasn't down to Apple misjudging the launch — but because of a serious technical fault with a key component from one of Apple's suppliers. The "taptic engines" that provide vibrating feedback to the Apple Watch wearer produced by AAC Technologies Holdings were defective, forcing Apple to switch to another supplier. But the new supplier couldn't ramp up production immediately, causing delays. As such, when retail chief Angela Ahrendts told Apple Store employees that the company had made the "hard decision" not to have the device available for purchase in stores, it wasn't because Apple screwed up — it was because AAC had let them down. Tim Cook's comments to Chinese Apple employees indicate that the company has finally managed to overcome this hurdle, and will soon have sufficient stock to finally allow walk-in purchases. Speaking more broadly about the Apple Watch, the CEO said that "the Watch could not be going better, we're working really hard on making more," according to 9to5Mac. Issues with the launch hasn't stopped the Apple Watch enjoying extremely strong sales (even if customers aren't actually getting the devices they ordered). It's been estimated that the Apple Watch sold more units in a single day than Google managed in an entire year with its own smartwatch software, Android Wear. And respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple's smartwatch saw more than 2.3 million pre-orders in total, dwarfing Google's 720,000 total sales in 2014. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Flashback: Here's how Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch  | ||
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