While the Apple Watch debuted in the US last month, its Israel debut will be postponed until at least 2016, a senior cellular industry source told Globes on Thursday. 

Even then, the source said, the watch will first only be distributed through cellular phone operators (e.g. Orange, Pelephone, and Cellcom), and only afterwards in electronic and computer stores. 

The decision for a slow introduction is due to a global Apple Watch shortage, the source mentioned, and from a desire to introduce the Watch to all distributors at once, instead of showing preference for one over another. 

The watch makes it possible to read text messages while talking on the phone, as well as calling over Wi-Fi, control music, and talk to the Siri intelligence app. It currently sells for between $349 and $17,000 in the US. 

Apple currently employees 700 workers in Israel, most of them chip engineers; its Israel development center is Apple’s largest in the world aside from its central campus in Cupertino, California.

Israelis bought 2.85 million smartphone devices in 2014.