“I ordered my iPad Pro online and picked it up in the store today. My excitement for this device is all about the Pencil, which doesn’t ship for a few more weeks. The store didn’t receive any and employees have no idea when they will get it,” Manton Reece blogs. “They didn’t receive any Apple keyboards either, so I left with the only remaining accessory in stock: the white smart cover.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been less excited to walk out of a store with a brand new $800 gadget,” Reece writes. “I think it’s going to be a success and I’m building apps for it. But without the Pencil and keyboard, a significant part of the appeal is missing.”
“I enjoyed reading the iPad Pro reviews this morning, especially from Daring Fireball and MacStories. But those reviews describe a product that just doesn’t exist today,” Reece writes. “The iPad Pro as advertised on Apple’s web site and in beautiful marketing videos isn’t ready, and I wish Apple had delayed the whole launch until they could deliver these important accessories for a complete user experience.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s inexplicable that Apple continues to shoot themselves in the foot by botching important launches with appalling regularity. Something’s broken in Cupertino.
More here: Apple’s major problem is Tim Cook.
SEE ALSO:
At Apple, it seems as if no one’s minding the store – November 13, 2015
Publishers underwhelmed with Apple News app – November 13, 2015
Apple’s joyless iPad Pro launch: WTF are the Apple Pencils and Smart Keyboards? (4-5 weeks away) – November 12, 2015
Apple’s best days are behind it or something – November 7, 2015
Apple TV 4 is a beta product and, if you bought one, you’re an unpaid beta tester – November 5, 2015
Apple Watch has arrived for just 22 percent of preorder customers – April 28, 2015
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015
Tim Cook’s mea culpa: iMac launch should have been postponed – April 24, 2013
Tim Cook open letter: We fell short with new Maps app; we are extremely sorry – September 28, 2012
With obtuse iPad 2 launch, Apple fails to delight 49,000 customers per day – March 21, 2011
I agree that it’s inexplicable that the Pencil and keyboard are delayed but I think this is only a story inside the Apple rumor site/general tech bubble. The average joe is talking about what happened in Paris this weekend not Apple’s iPad Pro.
I’m one of the minority who don’t want a Pencil nor an external keyboard for my iPad Pro. Rather, I’m trying to decide if I want a bigger screen iPad than my Air 2. Still not sure.🤔
I’m afraid Reece would not have been much more excited had they had the pencil or the keyboard.
The local Apple store in the UK had both but there are very few programs that have the necessary software integration to give you a Wow feeling. That said, the iPad with Notes and the pencil did work well and the pencil is really great.
Early adopters just have to suck it up or keep their cash in their pockets.
I understand what he’s saying – the Pencil is the killer feature of the iPad Pro (besides its size and sound). However, the market for true Pencil users will turn out to be significantly smaller than the one for the iPad Pro. The keyboard is a little more problematic, but since Logitech has a better solution (reportedly), that delay is probably moot. Of course, the fact that someone else is already doing a better keyboard accessory than Apple’s solution makes you wonder why Apple bothered to create a keyboard in the first place, but that’s a different issue.
A larger than expected number of people (namely the ones with money) will buy the iPad Pro and not use it for any ‘Pro’ function at all, especially since there’s not an iPad Air update this year. Not many of them will have an interest in the Pencil (can’t easily or safely transport it, store it, or carry it, without a pocket clip, lanyard attachment, or case pocket).
I say “just get a #2 Ticonderoga and be done with it”.
Why spend $100 on one?
Okay I’m going to disagree with MDN . . . kind of.
What obviously happened is the pencil (and keyboard) had problems or defects in the manufacturing. Rather than ship a defective pencil (I can think of a number of companies that would not have noticed or cared that their device wasn’t up to spec) they did the right thing and didn’t ship it till it was right.
They could have also held the whole thing and missed the Christmas season, but that would have also been a mistake. I think this was the best way to handle a bad situation.
They could have also come out and said why the pencil wasn’t ready but, unfortunately, Apple doesn’t do that.
Yes, this is the only possible thing that could have happened. The companies producing these items most likely aren’t Apple’s normal bread-and-butter operations like Foxconn and they probably any issues getting the quality consistent and meeting Apple’s standards at such a high volume. Remember the first white iPhone? How long did that take to finally hit the market and that was under Steve’s watch.
You are probably right. If that’s the case, then Apple needs to put out a statement saying so. This is what they did several years ago when they had supply issues with the new iMac and shipments were delayed because quality issues with the screens and resulting manufacturing yield reductions.
This makes sense to people, and people appreciate a company taking the position that they will not ship a substandard product. However, Apple has not said anything and has left people to write their own narrative, and it winds up being “Apple doesn’t know how to roll out a product anymore”
So, to summarize . . . Apple doesn’t have a problem with execution, but with communication.
played with the pencil at the Apple Store last saturday and it’s amazing. it also made me even more disappointed it didn’t ship at the same time
Oh so things like this, never happened under Steve.
I propose the ailments are, nothing more than what we have come to expect, going on more or less than 20 years.
When you try to listen to the stock market, all you get are complaints. Running a company and pleasing short gain buyers isn’t a compatible mix. Steve was the only person who could ignore the market, without losing his job. Everyone else has a cloud over their head, perform or get out.
If you want Apple to remain great, you have to leave them alone. Sure complain about the missteps. Hammer them on production and marketing. But don’t think for a minute that Apple and their leadership have lost their edge when you have back seat drivers looking at every nook and cranny. Apple is in no worse shape than they have been in years passed.
Show me someone who won’t sink the ship, before you ask for Tim’s head. Even then you have no idea what the outcome would be.
Well said!
Apple is not PERFECT… and never has been! But it’s a far, far better company than Microscum, HP, Samcopy and others. It continues to be the company that most other computer and phone companies look to, to know what to do next.
Who would be better than Tim? Uncle Fester, Eric the Mole, Fiorina?
Finally, a good level-headed post. There were plenty of missteps and even fiascos (remember MobileMe?) under Steve’s watch. Now that he has passed away he’s become canonized as someone who could never do any wrong. Apple is now a much larger and different company than when Steve died. All this talk of Steve would have done or not have done this or that is so tiring and a waste of time.
Bring back Steve Jobs! Heads will roll!
MDN, the new MDN troll.
It’s not the Crook,
it’s the Bee Hive.
It’s Teddy No Clue
There is more Tim Cook and Apple-bashing going on here than on any PC/Android site I’ve been to in recent memory. Then again, I am no masochist- perhaps it’s time to avoid all.
That’s because most people here have a long connection to Apple and have fairly high expectations based on a history of product excellence. Perhaps people on PC/Android sites are used to s**tty products and are therefore less likely to complain.
For those of us who are used to nearly
Oh, BOO HOO, I have to wait THREE MORE WEEKS to get my Pencil and keyboard! I am SO disappointed! Cry me a river/what a weanie. Obviously, starting sales of the Pro without the key accessories wasn’t Apple’s first choice, but as The Other Steve said above, sometimes you just gotta go with what you got. …Think of the Pencil as a Hannukah gift…sheesh.
Patience is a virtue. So is reason, and sanity.
I think you underestimate the pencil and its potential. BUT the potential will only come with new software.
As for the cover, I think the Apple covers have always been over priced and more often than not ‘Meh’. Covers are a bit like watch straps, everyone has a different idea of what they, need, want, and modus operandi. Some just buy the Apple version whilst they are in the store buying the device. Others spend time on the web and find what they want.
MDN is really dumping on Tim Cook these days, ever since he introduced the ad blocking APIs to Safari.
The Pencil Design and Manufacturing Team were temporarily reassigned to help with Houston Initiative to Allow Transexual Men Into the Little Girls Rooms, at Tim Cook’s directive. First priority at the new Apple is advancing the homosexual agenda. Then products come very soon after that.
Beside wanting to book a billion dollars or more in sales of the iPad Pro before the end of the calendar year, Apple might also have planned to introduce another major product in January 2016 and wishes not to dilute that thunder.
This was clearly a screw up on Apple’s part, the whole thing is too messy for it to be planned. They pulled back the release of the Pencil at the last minute, for whatever internal reason. If Apple knew the Pencil wouldn’t be ready they would have let us know well advance. it’s not like Apple to deliberately hide such information, they wouldn’t want to have us question their integrity.
Apple realized at the last minute that a Pencil would be too easily lost, with a round, rolling shape, no clip, and no means of securing it. And they also noted that the removable, round, roll-able cap covering the lightning connector would be too easily lost. So they’re adding a Smart Connector in the Pencil so it can stick to and charge from the iPad Pro without a cable, and a matching Smart Connector to the side of the keyboard, so the Pencil always has a home and stays put and charges when not in use.
Cook screws up another launch, shocker.
Cook raises prices again this year, shocker.
Cook screws up and ships half an Apple TV 4, shocker.
Cook doesn’t update 9.7″ iPad this year, raises prices, wonders why it’s not selling, shocker.
Cook launches incomplete CarPlay, shocker.
Cook launches severely incomplete HomeKit, shocker.
Cook goes on about gay whatever, that boosted sales, not! Shocker.
Cook makes employees get more training crap for racism that doesn’t exist, shocker.
Cook blows how much on Arnhends or whatever her name is, what a waste of everything, shocker.
Cook ships a half ass watch, shocker.
Cook approves price of incomplete iPad pro in Canada, have you seen the price? Shocker.
Cook approves no 64gb iPad pro version just to force fanboys to dish out over $100 more for storage they don’t need, shocker.
Larger screen iPhones, the only thing cook has done right, but phone releases are years in the making, was it cook, or was it Jobs!
Anyone seeking a few minutes of excitement, and prepared to shell out $800 in the process, should think of something other than a computing gadget. There are certainly a number of persons that can help satisfy anyone’s thirst for excitement in his own community, and many of the providers will probably agree to do it for less than $800.
If, on the other hand, one is looking for a gadget that will make doing work in a more pleasant and exciting way than any other device currently available, the iPad Pro could very well do the trick!