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Apple Watch made more first year sales than the iPhone

The Apple Watch has been with us a full year now, and despite a perception that the smartwatch hasn’t really caught on, sales of the device are double what the iPhone achieved in its debut year.

Ahead of Apple’s upcoming earnings call, analyst estimations peg Watch sales at around 12 million units over the last year. That’s roughly twice the 6 million or so iPhones sold during its first year on the market. The Apple Watch “accounted for about 61% of global smartwatch sales last year,” which perhaps says more about the public’s general apathy towards smartwatches than the brilliance of the Apple Watch. Still, it’s impressive to capture the majority of a market in just one year on the block. Not too shabby for Apple’s first new product line under Tim Cook.

Of course, Apple is a much bigger company now than when it launched the iPhone back in 2008, and that could be the main reason for the Apple Watch first year sales outgunning those of the iPhone. The iPod had a slow start too, back in 2001, but ended up being a huge hit which helped to reinvigorate Apple into the company we know today. Who knows what the future holds for smartwatches.

The company is expected to announce a sequel soon – perhaps at WWDC in June – and we will know more about the success of the product once we see the reception to Apple Watch 2.