Before you freak out about tanking Apple Watch sales...
According to Slice Intelligence, which monitors email inboxes, watch sales are down 85% since it went on sale.
This is seen as yet another sign that the Apple Watch is struggling.
Perhaps the watch is struggling. It's had mixed reviews since its launch.
But, this data from Slice isn't terribly helpful for figuring out how the watch is doing.
Here's why: Sales are always going to drop from their initial high.
Look at the iPhone. When the iPhone 6 first hit the market in September, Apple sold 10 million over the opening weekend. That's 3.3 million iPhones per day. Four months later, Apple announced that it sold 74.5 million from October to December. That's 828,000 phones per day.
Over a three-month period, iPhone sales tanked! They dropped 75%. Brutal! When Apple reports earnings later this month, it's expected to have sold ~50 million phones, or 556,000 per day. That would be an 83% drop.
This is what happens with any product. There's an initial spike in interest, then a steep decline.
Apple Watch sales are likely down, but it's to be expected.
That's not to say all is well with the watch. Interest in the watch has declined to alarming levels. According to Google Trends, people are more interested in the iPod than the watch. The iPod is dead, so that's bad for the watch.
People, like myself, have sold their watches. Other folks are finding that life without the watch isn't so bad.
There are passionate advocates for the watch here and there, but it doesn't seem likely, as presently constructed, to become a massive breakout hit.