According to Business Insider, Apple outsold the entire Swiss watch industry combined last quarter; it is estimated that Apple sold 8 million Apple Watches in the last quarter of 2017, the most since the product was introduced and the highest number of shipments in a single quarter for any wearable vendor.
“The cellular version of the Apple Watch was in strong demand in the U.S., Japan, and Australia, where all major operators stocked it in time for the holiday season,” said Vincent Thielke, an analyst at industry researcher Canalys.
With its features such as fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring, taking phone calls from your wrist and now LTE-enabled, the Apple Watch has its competitive advantages over traditional timepieces in the long run, especially now that technology is in such high demand and revolves around everything.
Total Apple Watch sales for 2017 was 18 million, which was up by more than 50% compared to the year before. Time Cook, Apple’s CEO, said revenue from the watches alone is approaching that of a Fortune 400 company, meaning Apple’s watch business is nearly the size of a company like Jetblue, with at least $6.7 billion in annual sales.