Apple sold an estimated 2 million to 2.5 million Apple Watches in the latest quarter—bringing in approximately $1 billion in revenue and making it the best-selling smartwatch on the market—with more than 6 million sales expected by year-end, according to a report from Juniper Research.
The $1 billion revenue figure only results in more than 2.5 million units if the Apple Watch Sport has a 75 percent or greater share of the product line’s revenue, but the study noted that, with reports that the $10,000 or more Apple Watch Edition having sold out in China, this is unlikely to be the case.
Apple has so far been vague about official sales figures for the device, which arrived to much media fanfare earlier this year.
Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri remarked that the Watch has sold more than the first iPhone or the iPad in a comparable period—that is, 87 days.
The first iPad was the better-selling of the two, and sold 2 million in 60 days, which led Juniper to its report estimate.
However, the analyst firm predicted Apple would not sell more than 7 million watches by the end of the year despite a potential boost from the holiday shopping season.
In the report, Juniper devices analyst James Moar warned that despite buyers being satisfied with the device, the product is running out of steam. He said he would also expect a decline in sales following launch, especially as the first half of the year draws to a close.
Estimates from other research firms, including Piper Jaffray, Canalys and Slice Intelligence, are in the 2 million to 4 million unit range.
On the company’s third-quarter earnings call earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook struck a predictably optimistic tone, saying that the Watch was off to “a great start” and had “exceeded internal expectations” in terms of sales.
As other reports noted, user satisfaction for the device is high—impressively so, according to a survey by tech firm Wristly, which worked with analyst Ben Bajarin.
That study found user satisfaction at an astounding 97 percent—even higher than the levels Apple received when it released the original iPhone.
