Apple's Dan Riccio Says 2018 iPad Pro 'Meets or Exceeds' Quality Standards of Design and Precision, More Info to Come

[KPandian1]

This 400 micron variance is less than half a millimeter (or the width of fewer than four sheets of paper at most)

Damn, Apple. Here I was teaching the kids that the minimum of three points constitutes a plane, as that was what they taught me! To graph it, we had to prove four points on a plane!

The iPad is 441.97 sq. cm (68.37 sq. inches) in area - Apple can't make this a flat/plane surface?

A 400 micron/micrometer deviation/gradient in 24.76 cm is acceptable parameters in a high-tech 21st Century manufacturing corporation? The acceptable deviation is 0 microns, as these are computer generated machined products.

Hey, I did not bring microns in the discussion. That starts from an "alleged" Dan Riccio statement.

Read the article. 400 microns is tighter than their old standard.

That was on a much thicker block of machined aluminum slab.

I'm just having fun here with the metric system, but very annoyed with Apple over the bent iPads!

 

[itguy06]

There isn’t anyone else out right now in the industry that makes a tablet that has nearly the power of the beastly chipset A12X.
While people complain about what it lacks, and be negative. How about look at everything it can do. Yeah it doesn’t have a mouse support. We know android ones can do that. The integration between software and hardware is unmatched. I agree Apple did make it too thin and it’s obviously prone to bending.
Let’s not down the whole iPad over a design problem.

Surface Pro and other detachables come darn close. They run a real OS, have decently fast processors i3/i5/i7, have good touch and pen support and have keyboard and mouse support. I really, really like mine and it beats the iPad in most things because it runs real apps and can run many of them at the same time.

 

[code-m]

Are they that out of touch with reality?

Sounds like the iPhone 6 fiasco. Next year, this was a beta test version.

 

[groovyd]

Use these Out Of The Box pictures instead of the OP MacRumors photo as a guide.

yeah MR should really update their story main photo as the one they are using is highly misleading.
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Use these Out Of The Box pictures instead of the OP MacRumors photo as a guide.

those look more then 400 microns too though

 

[genovelle]

“Blah microns blah blah flatness blah function blah. Note, just like a slight dent in expensive new automobile, a slight bend in a new iPad Pro will not affect function.”

I can promise you they are all bent and imperfect. I worked for Honda for 10 years and their tolerances are much smaller than even Toyota, but I can find issues on any car I touch if I look hard enough
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Maybe for the particular article. There are a dozen or so photos floating around the net showing the bowed condition.

Dozens from millions shown and how many are the same device from different angles and how many are shot in such a way to exaggerate the effect or that are even photoshopped. I guess we will never know. I’ve been an Apple customer since 2001 and I can assure you if it was significant and out of spec which they also mention the tolerances are tighter on this one, they would quickly replace them.

I think the flat form factor exaggerates the issues.

 

[Tec972]

Glad to see people are seeing the light that Apple is not your friend. They are a disgusting company trying to rip you off like countless others. Hope to see more people open their eyes and stop blindly defending apple no matter what they do.

They will most likely make this right but their typical reaction of dodge and deflect gets tiresome, time and time again.

 

[myrtlebee]

There’s nothing to defend here. I’ve told you that Apple is wrong and completely botched the situation. I just don’t take it as personally as you do and understand that manufacturing defects will happen. Don’t get all worked up over stuff you can’t control and stop acting like Apple owes ya something, you’ll be better off.

Apple owes me honesty and a product that isn’t faulty, and it owes that to all its customers. That’s why I take it “personally”.

I would say take your own advice and enjoy your Apple products and relax instead of getting all worked up that other people are getting “worked up”.

You say this is something we can’t control - maybe for now. But the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It is the people who make noise who drive change. If people don’t speak out or complain things don’t change. You can thank us “worked up” people who have gotten every consumer protection, unjust corporate policy change, and product design change that you enjoy today.

 

[duervo]

I have been very sympathetic to Apple - with you there.

Apple closed today at its lowest price of the last 52 weeks - an $83.84 swing down over the year. Down ~36%!

Pretty much the entire market is doing lousy right now. Not the ideal time for Apple to be getting this kind of coverage, nor for them to be making these kinds of statements.

 

[steve333]

>In the email, Riccio says that the iPad Pro's design "meets or exceeds" all of Apple's quality and precision standards.<

Then their standards must be pretty low.
Cook should be embarrassed

 

[M2M]

Breaking news: seller of the product says he has the greatest product.

 

[Howard2k]

>In the email, Riccio says that the iPad Pro's design "meets or exceeds" all of Apple's quality and precision standards.<

Then their standards must be pretty low.
Cook should be embarrassed

Why would you comment on the article without reading it?

 

[retroneo]

0.4mm !!!

Apple is claiming that it is normal to require 4 sheets of paper to be wedges under one side to keep the iPad level! Ridiculous!

 

[Martyimac]

My iPad pro released in June 2017, model A1701, is flat. Laid it on a granite countertop which measures out flat using 3 different tools/instruments. So, it seems  really is losing site of quality in search of thin. Considering what my iPad has been through, I know  can make a decent iPad. They just choose not to .

 

[metsjetsfan]

If I'm spending over 2K on an iPad then its completely unacceptable to have a bend as depicted in the photo. It would be exchanged until I would get one without a bend.

It's amazing Apple is trying to pass this off as a manufacturing variance.

what if there was a bend depicted on the photo on apples product marketing images. would that be acceptable

 

[KPandian1]

There’s nothing to defend here. I’ve told you that Apple is wrong and completely botched the situation. I just don’t take it as personally as you do and understand that manufacturing defects will happen. Don’t get all worked up over stuff you can’t control and stop acting like Apple owes ya something, you’ll be better off.

Why are you trying to shut down the conversation - how does it hurt you?

Happy for how you feel (/s), but you are not the king.

 

[Zellio]

Riccio says that the iPad Pro's design "meeds or exceeds" And your is point is?????? So if your standards were that they don't HAVE to work that would make it right? OMG! Selling my 2 shares of stock soon as I can, and trying to find a way out of this Apple eco-system! ???????

What he means is that Apple has Bent over backwards to meet your expectations

 

[bladerunner2000]

There's been plenty of examples on the Internet this past month of people using their iPads meaningfully for work.

In all these cases, the limitations you stated are either non-issues or haven't been enough to negatively impact the overall experience. Or in some cases, what the pros consider to be limitations, they consider to be strengths.

We have a girl who used an iPad Pro to illustrate a book. She likes that apps like procreate are more immersive and less complicated than their desktop equivalents, making the drawing experience a lot less intimidating and distracting.

https://the-ipad-artist.com/dear-tim-cook-abc3fbffba1b

Here's how one guy uses his iPad to record his own screencasts using screen recording and lumafusion. It's definitely something I will be looking at trying out (again) for 2019.

http://teddysvoronos.com/2018/12/04/producing-recording-editing-and-sharing-animated-videos-on-ipad/

Of course, there's Austin Mann using his iPad for editing photos, and he particularly loves the portability, even as he agrees that file management could use some improvement, but the other strengths of his setup offsets the con.

http://austinmann.com/trek/ipad-pro-photographer-iceland

Jonathan Morrison has shared his thoughts about editing on an iPad on YouTube, and even admitted online that he is open to using an iPad for editing on the move in future. We will see how that pans out.

Henny the Bizness shares on how he uses his iPad to create music.

And of course, Macstories using iPads for writing.
https://www.macstories.net/stories/my-must-have-ios-apps-2018-edition/

Just a few that come to mind off-hand.

I am not saying that everyone should start throwing out their iMac Pros and switch to iPads, but it's not entirely accurate to say that the iPad can't be used to work. Yes, lots of areas still can use improvement, while certain tasks remain flat-out impossible, but if you keep waiting for all the blocks to fall into place before starting, no progress can ever be made.

The foundation is there already. I believe that at this point, the people who claim that an iPad can't be used for any sort of work whatsoever say more about themselves than about the limitations of the iPad.

You know all of that is completely moot when the iPad doesn't have a file browser and doesn't allow you to connect USB C devices to it (like thumb drives) even though it uses USB C.

Pros aren't using this glorified tablet for these reasons (and many others).

 

[Rookbird]

No it doesn't. Just stop, Apple. Design over functionality is becoming a problem if this is your response.

Design over functionality has been a problem that has been plaguing Apple since Tim Cook has taken over and it is getting worse and worse.

 

[raghu8912]

Does a Pre-Bent iPad Pro 11 meet your quality standard or not? Yes or No. Please answer.

If the flatness of the iPad Pro is < 0.4 mm then yes it meets the specification.
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What about standards of structural integrity?

Bending out of the box doesn't affect structural integrity. if Apple says the spec is 0.400 mm of flatness then I am sure they tested units with this spec to make sure that they still work.
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You know all of that is completely moot when the iPad doesn't have a file browser and doesn't allow you to connect USB C devices to it (like thumb drives) even though it uses USB C.

Pros aren't using this glorified tablet for these reasons (and many others).

Just because you want to connect USB C devices doesn't mean that every pro user would like to use it that way.

 

[myrtlebee]

Why are you trying to shut down the conversation - how does it hurt you?

Happy for how you feel (/s), but you are not the king.

It's the same situation every single thread with a hint of criticism of Apple. People complain about people complaining. Makes no sense.

 

[kwikdeth]

I think the flat form factor exaggerates the issues.

You mean the non-flat form factor. I wouldnt be surprised that a lot of people are seeing this due to an optical illusion created by the ipad sitting slightly off the surface thanks to the camera bump. Not to mention the possibility of people putting some kind of weight on the camera bump causing it to bend.

long and short of it: im blaming the bump.

 

[myrtlebee]

You mean the non-flat form factor. I wouldnt be surprised that a lot of people are seeing this due to an optical illusion created by the ipad sitting slightly off the surface thanks to the camera bump. Not to mention the possibility of people putting some kind of weight on the camera bump causing it to bend.

long and short of it: im blaming the bump.

People are seeing this just holding the thing in the air. There are photos of it. It's not because of the camera bump.

 

[The Game 161]

No bending issues on mine.

 

[kreasonos]

You're holding it wrong.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Nothing says “jumping credibility shark” like arguing that bent is either normal or acceptable.
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Nothing says “jumping credibility shark” like arguing that bent is either normal or acceptable.

Memo to Cook, Ive, Riccio, Williams and Schiller: This is a design, specification, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, marketing and PR fail.