Internal Apple memo says it all: No Watch to be found for sale in stores until June

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It feels like rumors originating from the supply chain of any manufacturer are true only half the time, but in the case of the Apple Watch, they may have been onto something. Namely, it seems as if Apple is truly having trouble manufacturing enough of the wearable, and while pre-ordered units will start shipping at the end of next week, you can apparently wave goodbye to in-store sales of the thing until June. We have two, semi-officials reasons, to think that.

To start off, according to a leaked internal Apple memo issued by SVP of Retail and Online Sales, Angela Ahrendts, "due to high global interested combined with [our] initial supply", walk-in purchases of the Apple Watch will not be happening on April 24th, as was promised. In fact, Ahrendts tells employees that this situation is expected to "continue through the month of May". In the meantime, the ex-Burberry exec encourages Apple employees to instead help people place their orders online and assure them that they'll still get help setting up their new Watch either online or in one of the company's many retail stores. The gadget will still be available for preview on-location.

And the second reason? Apple has already done away with the "Available 4.24.15" tagline on the official Apple Watch page for the US, and has instead put a more unpredictable "The Watch is coming.", giving further credibility to the aforementioned leaked memo (seen below).

According to early estimates, the Apple Watch has managed anywhere between 1 and 2.3 million pre-orders already – more than the combined total of all Android Wear-based smartwatches sold in 2014. When you consider the many, many different customization options available to Apple Watch buyers (material and colors for the strap, bezel, size, edition, etc), and then think about the hundreds of retail stores across the globe that the company needs to supply with, preferably, at least one of each, you can see how keeping up with demand can quickly turn into a daunting task and a logistical nightmare, even if your company logo features a partially eaten apple and you have nearly $200 billion cash in the bank.

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source: iGen via BGR

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