Tim Cook said the early read on the Apple Watch is a good one.
The much-hyped smartwatch is a key test to Cook’s ability to launch Apple Inc. into a new product category without aid of the late Steve Jobs. And so far it seems to be a success. The chief executive officer, while not quite taking a victory lap, was singing the new gadget’s praises on a conference call with analysts Monday.
“All around the world, we’ve seen the excitement on social networks as people start using their Apple Watch,” Cook said. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Our developer community has already seen the potential in this new category and put some of their best thinking into what wearable technology can do.”
The iPhone launched with about 500 apps and the iPad introduction had around 1,000. There are now more than 3,500.
Consumers who placed pre-orders began receiving their watches, which cost $350 for the baseline version, on Friday.
“Right now, demand is greater than supply,” Cook said. “And so we’re working hard to remedy that. We’ve made progress over the last week or so and we’re able to deliver core customers and Apple Watch over the weekend.”
He projected that the Apple Watch could start to roll out to other countries in late June.
The watch is just a part of Apple’s multipronged approach to the worlds of fashion and retail.
The company is also trying to build its Apple Pay wireless payment system, which works with the new watch, and said that Discover card would be able to use the program starting this fall.
Apple’s been on an expansion tear. Over the first half of its fiscal year, the company sold 135 million iPhones, 34 million iPads and 10 million Macs, boosting revenues by 28 percent to $132.6 billion while profits rose 35 percent to $31.6 billion.