Apple lowers its profile to make money: Watches are on retailers' shelves

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Apple Watch sales are not ideal, so Apple has started to adjust its strategy and began to cooperate with local large retailers in North America, Europe and Oceania to entrust them to sell Apple Watch, instead of selling it as a rare commodity. Starting from August 21, a retailer in France will also start selling Apple Watch.

According to AppleInsider, a US technology news website, on Thursday, Apple selected Fnac, a large French cultural and electronics retailer, as its retail partner for the Apple Watch. Starting Friday, the company's retail network and online stores will sell the Apple Watch.

Prior to this, Apple Watch had not been sold in Europe through external retailers, except for a very small number of luxury stores.

Similar to the previous cooperation with Best Buy, Apple will not entrust the full range of Apple Watches to physical retailers for sale. It may mainly include the relatively cheap sports version and standard version of Apple Watch. The gold version of the watch, which costs more than $10,000, is not suitable for retailers targeting mass consumers.

In North America, Apple recently signed a cooperation agreement with Best Buy, which will sell the sports version and standard version of Apple Watch in multiple stores in the United States and Canada.

It is reported that in addition to North America and Europe, in Oceania, another important market for Apple electronic products, Apple has also signed an agreement with Australian department store Myer. The company will sell Apple Watches in several of its department stores.

Apple Watch comes in many sizes and versions, and also has a large number of watch bands to choose from. Due to the complexity of the product line, it is expected that external retailers will choose to sell some of the more popular watch models or watch bands.

When announcing its second quarter financial report, Apple CEO Cook revealed that as of the end of the second quarter, Apple had a total of 680 sales outlets selling Apple Watches worldwide, and the watch sales network will be further expanded in the second half of the year.

According to media reports, Apple may also have selected local department store retail partners in the UK to sell Apple Watches.

After the Apple Watch was released, it received very bad reviews from the outside world and was even pointed out as the worst new electronic product category ever launched by Apple.

Earlier, ASE, the Taiwan company responsible for packaging system chips for Apple Watch, reported that the monthly packaging orders for Apple Watch have not yet reached the break-even point, which once again proves that the sales of Apple Watch after its launch are disappointing. A third-party market research agency also found that the sales of Apple Watch fell rapidly after its launch.

It remains to be seen whether Apple's move to expand its sales network will stimulate Apple Watch sales, and whether Apple is confident enough to announce Apple Watch sales when it releases its third-quarter earnings report.