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75% of Apple Watch customers are first time buyers, likely driven by Series 3 promos

Apple’s Wearables business continues to grow substantially every quarter. During Q1 2020, Apple reported Wearables revenue of $10 billion, setting an all-time revenue record and surpassing the Mac for the first time.

Apple’s Wearables category actually includes more than just Apple Watch. It consists of Apple Watch, AirPods, accessories, Beats products, and HomePod. This quarter marks the first time that the Wearables, Home, and Accessories category outperformed the Mac, which brought in $7.2 billion in revenue for comparison’s sake.

Apple’s Wearables, Home, and Accessories revenue:

  • Q1 2019: $7.3 billion
  • Q2 2019: $5.1 billion
  • Q3 2019: $5.5 billion
  • Q4 2019: $6.5 billion
  • Q1 2020: $10 billion

According to Apple, 75% of Apple Watch buyers during the holiday quarter were brand new to the Apple Watch platform. This is slightly higher than the last time Apple cited this statistic in September, when it reported that 70% of Apple Watch customers were buying their first model. This makes sense given that Apple Watch is still nowhere near the size of the iPhone in terms of unit sales.

We also know that Apple faced significant supply problems with the Apple Watch Series 3 during the holiday quarter. This implies that many people took advantage of holiday promotions to buy the two-year-old Apple Watch, and most of these buyers were likely first-time Apple Watch buyers rather than upgrades.

During Apple’s earnings call with investors and analysts, Tim Cook was asked for some additional color on Apple Watch adoption. Specifically, whether or not Apple Watch buyers are new to Apple altogether, or just new Apple Watch customers with existing iPhones.

Cook said:

I think that with each Apple product that a customer buys, I think they get tighter into the ecosystem because that’s the reason that they’re buying into it. They like the experience, the customer experience. And so from that point of view, I think each of our products can drive another product. I would think in that case that the iPhone comes first. But there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s some people that came into the ecosystem for the Watch.

You can read our full coverage of Apple’s Q1 2020 earnings release here.

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com