23. That’s how many people decided to queue up for the Apple Watch outside the Sydney Apple Store this morning. There’s only one problem: they won’t be able to walk out with an Apple Watch when they’re done.
According to News Limited’s tech editor (and friend of Gizmodo) Jen Dudley-Nicholson, there were 23 poor, misinformed souls outside the Sydney Apple Store before the doors opened at 9am.
The #AppleWatch queue in Sydney is 23 people long. Yup. 23 people. pic.twitter.com/muyynLC77L
— Jen Dudley-Nicholson (@jendudley) April 23, 2015
The reason the queue is so short for this Apple product is not because nobody wants it, it’s because Apple is selling it differently.
Due to the demand for Watch, Apple holds try-on sessions in-store where staff fit customers for the watch they want and talk them through it. We had a fitting of the normal Apple Watch and the $24,000 Apple Watch Edition a few weeks ago.
After their fitting, customers are instructed to buy the gadget online and have it shipped to their house.
Apple’s head of retail, Angela Ahrendts, indicated in a memo uncovered by The Telegraph in the UK that Apple Stores wouldn’t have product available to purchase at retail outlets until at least June.
Those 23 people are going to wish they pre-ordered. For what it’s worth, there’s usually a line about that long for the Genius Bar outside anyway.