Gasping for an Apple Watch? You'll have to tremble and shake for two more weeks

Apple plans to expand sales of the Apple Watch to new markets later this month, even though it will still be a couple of weeks before it can catch up with its existing backlog of orders.

The Cupertino firm said its coveted wrist accessory will go on sale in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan beginning on June 26. The devices will be available online, in Apple retail stores, and at select authorized retail outlets.

At the same time, Apple noted that it has been overwhelmed by orders in its current markets – including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, and the US – and that supply has thus far failed to meet up with demand.

The good news for fanbois, though, is that it's slowly catching up.

"We're also making great progress with the backlog of Apple Watch orders, and we thank our customers for their patience," Apple senior VP of operations Jeff Williams said in a canned statement. "All orders placed through May, with the sole exception of Apple Watch 42mm Space Black Stainless Steel with Space Black Link Bracelet, will ship to customers within two weeks."

Cutting through the Apple fluff: they're still not able to make enough Watches to meet customer demand. In particular, the aforementioned 42mm Space Black model, priced at $1,099, is in short supply.

This, despite the fact that Cupertino has practically made customers jump through hoops to buy the things. The Apple Watch has technically been on sale since April, but customers can only "experience" them at Apple Stores; all actual sales are fulfilled online.

Only Apple knows how many Watches it has shipped so far and how many orders it has received. But even if it's not really as big a seller as the Cupertino hype machine would have us believe, the Mac daddies can afford to take a hit on the smartwatch line should it not pan out. Last quarter alone, Apple turned a profit of $13.6bn on $58bn in revenue. ®