Apple Watch to Ship in April, Says CEO Tim Cook

Apple on Tuesday announced a blowout quarter, reporting record iPhone sales and the largest quarterly profit for any public company in history. CEO Tim Cook used the earnings call to provide an update on the upcoming Apple Watch.

"Development for Apple Watch is right on schedule and we expect to begin shipping in April," said Cook. "Developers are hard at work on apps, notifications and information summaries that we call Glances, all designed specifically for the Watch's user interface. The creativity and software innovation going on around Apple Watch is incredibly exciting and we can't wait for our customers to experience them when Apple Watch becomes available."

When Apple Watch was unveiled, the company had said its first wearable would ship in "early" 2015. Benjamin Reitzes of Barclays used the earnings call Q&A to ask if the April date was a slippage from the original plan, and if so, the reasons behind the same.

Reitzes asked: "Shifting in April, month or two later than I think you said originally obviously, probably not that big a deal, but what's going on with that product in a little more detail in terms of the timing and your excitement forward and maybe a little more color on other apps that could be available at launch? And any expectations you have for it would be great."

Cook opened by saying he used the watch every day and couldn't live without it, and went on to dismiss the suggestion that the Watch was delayed, saying April was still very much "early" in the year.

"My expectations are very high on it Apple Watch," said Cook. "I'm using it every day and love it and I can't live without it. So I see that we're making great progress on the development of it. The number of developers that are writing apps more for it are impressive and we're seeing some incredible innovation coming out there."

"And just to clarify," he added, "what we had been saying was early 2015, and we sort of look at the year and think of early as the first four months, mid is the next four months and late is the final four months. And so to us it's sort of within the range and it's basically when we thought. We're going to - but most importantly we're going to be thrilled to start shipping it, because we got a lot of customers that are wanting to get one."