Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
It's not a US-only rollout. It's an international rollout with a US centric design. And Apple say nothing about it being temporary. Should German users be patient? For how long? When's the real keyboard coming? Why is it so difficult for a €169 keyboard (!!) to have a choice of layouts?

Get a $15 bluetooth keyboard to tied you over for a month or two. You might have one already with your desktop or another tablet. It isn't that big a deal.
 
There's no symbol on that keyboard that can't be found on the US keyboard using the option key
Yeah, but things like the layout being QWERTY rather than QWERTZ is a bigger issue - if you're a German touch typist you're going to expect the Z key to be where the Y key actually is
It'll be an even bigger issue in France where they use an AZERTY layout with lots of keys in a different place...
 
Knowing that Apple will eventually add 3D Touch to iPads I'm not interested. Also the pen should have been integrated and rechargeable when docked. The recharging method is pretty ghetto when connected to the tablet. The keyboard thingy is an unoriginal knock off. Both accessories combined is half the price of an iPad Air 2. And the worst offense is that Windows 2 in 1's are full blown computers at equal or cheaper pricing.
The tablet market is in danger and this doesn't help it. Too many cons with this product for normal folks. And what concerns me the most is a report indicating that developers are starting to slow down updating iPad apps to their iPhone counterparts. The iPhone plus models have done much damage to the iPad.
 
How about a killer device that combines the iPad Pro with the MacBook retina; it would use iOS when keyboard is detached and OS X when attached as default but could be switched to iOS with keyboard.. make it support the Apple Pencil.

Could this work?
Why would Apple do that when they make more money from getting you to buy and iPad pro and a retina MacBook?
 
It would be wonderful if Apple or Microsoft would fully embrace their new pen(cil)s and produce a desktop that takes advantage of that tech (and touch). I envision (read lust for) an imac 5K that has a simple tilt-flat articulating base and pen touch support under OSX.
Simply make an accessory for iPad Pro that does that. Done.

Cintiq base adapter?
 
Last edited:
It would be wonderful if Apple or Microsoft would fully embrace their new pen(cil)s and produce a desktop that takes advantage of that tech (and touch). I envision (read lust for) an imac 5K that has a simple tilt-flat articulating base and pen touch support under OSX. Both companies have more than sufficient tech to do so and as for demand, it is most certainly there. Surface Book sold out in 1 week. Lets get it going for larger form desktop use as well.

There may well be demand for the SurfaceBook, but you should know that selling out in one week is indicative of nothing. All of Microsoft's devices 'sell out' in a matter of days. It's an easy way to get positive PR and build the hype. Apple does this too, of course, and it's clear that Microsoft has decided that the best way to compete with Apple is to become Apple. (Good luck to them, too, because someone needs to keep Apple honest, or else the only innovation we'll get next year is international iPad Pro keyboards).
 
Yeah as Microsoft says about all their Surface launches......then the truth comes out that stores can't get rid of them. Also Microsoft lies a lot. They also count distributing their product to the retail stores as a "sale".
Earlier iterations of the Surface sold poorly. Once MS got their **** together with the Pro3, they had no problem moving them. Not sure what you mean by the lying thing. Apple counts shipped as sold as well.
 
I think it comes down to population size of a given market. The smart keyboard is a niche accessory of a niche product of a line that has seen negative growth, so of course Apple is going to want to tip toe here. It doesn't need excess inventory of low demand products.

These specialized keyboards mostly serve small countries. The U.S. population is approx 320m. (Not to mention other countries that use an unmodified U.S. keyboard layout) vs, say, the Germanic speaking countries 100m. So it's more cost effective to produce U.S. keyboards first because of production minimums, gauge sales demand of those, and then know how many German keyboards would be optimal.

In the meantime the s/w keyboard does support many different languages and there are 3rd party BT keyboards for them as well. Clearly Apple believes it has more to lose by selling multiple language version smart keyboards @ launch than the lost sales from not having them available. It really doesn't take much to put a german overlay on a keyboard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 69Mustang
There's no symbol on that keyboard that can't be found on the US keyboard using the option key

Granted you can change the default language within your input methods options, however it doesn't make up for the fact that the US keyboard has less physical keys than some other languages. The lack of keys slows down text input, and just like anyone else in the world, other regions get used to their default keyboard layout. I don't expect a German to like my keyboard, anymore than I would like theirs for my default language.
 
  • Like
Reactions: V.K. and Daku93
Yeah, but things like the layout being QWERTY rather than QWERTZ is a bigger issue - if you're a German touch typist you're going to expect the Z key to be where the Y key actually is
It'll be an even bigger issue in France where they use an AZERTY layout with lots of keys in a different place...

I would guess the keyboard only sends key press info and the iPad does the translation to a corresponding symbol so you could still us a German layout however the keyboard markings would not correspond to what you get when you press a key; for example the Y key would display a Z.
 
Yeah as Microsoft says about all their Surface launches......then the truth comes out that stores can't get rid of them. Also Microsoft lies a lot. They also count distributing their product to the retail stores as a "sale".

MS is a public company. Surface was up to 1 Billion in sales per quarter even before this month's remarkable update and before Surface Book. Surface is the sole reason Apple reversed themselves, adopted the pen (pencil) and went after this form factor. The beauty of competition is forced innovation. Apple has an opportunity to lead with desktop as MS has with Surface Pro and Surface Book.
 
There's no symbol on that keyboard that can't be found on the US keyboard using the option key
I'm not gonna memorize a new keyboard layout just because Apple is too greedy to produce international layouts. This is an accessory for a pro device that is supposed to make your work easier. Not harder because you have to look at your keyboard every 5 seconds to find the key you're looking for. I can't even see keys like Ä Ö Ü ß on that thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kiro
Does Apple generally begin manufacturing products before they get FCC approval?
 
Get a $15 bluetooth keyboard to tied you over for a month or two. You might have one already with your desktop or another tablet. It isn't that big a deal.

So they're going to sell this for a month or two then release a new improved model? Seems disrespectful to early adopters. Okay... unusually disrespectful.
 
Yes, but with touch and without heinous.

Many elegant ways to do this. Wacom has good options for their 27
.

Both Apple and Microsoft have resources to make that transition much more fluid and graceful. Apple could easily do this to the existing iMac form factor with relatively minor engineering and tech that they have already paid for.

That seems like a highly specialized use though, drawing on a surface that large. And a LOT of movement of your hand vs something like a mouse or better yet Magic Trackpad. It seems they could just allow you to use an iPad or iPad pro as a display a la Cintiq (I know third party apps can do this to some degree).

No, This would be at desktop dimensions and with a file system.

I guess preferences vary- but as I was saying that's a LOT of space to move to do anything with a pen. Same reason why people prefer different sizes of graphics tablets, they dont necessarily want a 1:1 ratio of hand movement to results on screen. And by file system, you mean a "file manager", right?
 
Last edited:
Yeah as Microsoft says about all their Surface launches......then the truth comes out that stores can't get rid of them. Also Microsoft lies a lot. They also count distributing their product to the retail stores as a "sale".
The SP3 has been a very successful, as the Surface 3. Yes, prior iterations were selling poorly but not now. MS has a great product on their hands - there's no way to spin it any other way.
 
It's not a US-only rollout. It's an international rollout with a US centric design. And Apple say nothing about it being temporary. Should German users be patient? For how long? When's the real keyboard coming? Why is it so difficult for a €169 keyboard (!!) to have a choice of layouts?

Because it wouldn't be a single keyboard with a choice of layouts. It would be different keyboards entirely. The logistics of manufacturing and stocking are entirely different from a keyboard which is stocked as a generic keyboard then finished at final assembly by popping in the language-specific keycaps.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.