Tim Cook: Apple Watch in stores by June

Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5mac:

During his trip last week across China, Apple CEO Tim Cook held a meeting at Apple’s China headquarters with several employees in attendance, according to sources with knowledge of the briefing. Cook reportedly reiterated several recent China-focused announcements, including the new forest-focused environmental initiatives and improvements for education, but he also mentioned some new tidbits regarding the upcoming retail launch for the Apple Watch and the rollout of Apple Pay for China…

Regarding the Apple Watch, Cook began by telling the employees that “the Watch could not be going better, we’re working really hard on making more.” Cook joked that Apple wishes it had more operations staff and engineers to make the launch go even smoother, according to the sources. Notably, Cook promised that Apple Stores will begin carrying Apple Watch stock “by June.” This indicates that comments from Angela Ahrendts in April are still on track. For the first time, Cook also confirmed that the upcoming June in-store launch will include the company’s stores in China.

This is pretty big news. What do you do if you’ve got a Apple Watch on order and a shipping date in late June? Me, I’d leave it in the cart, then plan a trip to my local Apple Store in a few weeks, see if you can’t get that watch off the shelves then, once watch is in hand (on wrist?), cancel the online order.

This situation is going to create a little inventory bubble for Apple. But no matter, I suspect Apple will sell every watch they can make.