April 13--Orders for the Apple Watch quickly soared to nearly 1 million in the U.S. on Friday, according to one research firm's estimate.
Nearly two-thirds of customers purchased the Sport model, the least expensive at about $383. The black band was the most popular and the larger 42-mm variety was chosen 71% of the time, according to Slice Intelligence.
Apple's newest gadget went on sale online at 12:01 a.m. Friday and was quickly showing four-to-six-week delays for shipping. Customers who got in early could receive their watch as early as April 24.
Slice, which extrapolates sales by pooling receipts from groups of consumers, said many buyers bought multiple watches, averaging out to 1.3 watches each. Hundreds of the newly purchased watches have ended up on EBay.
Apple also sold 48,000 of its new MacBook laptops on Friday, Slice estimated.
Financial analysts have predicted that first-year sales of the watch could reach 40 million worldwide.
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