iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pass FCC, Smart Keyboard Limited to U.S. Layout at Launch

[Someyoungguy]

If you asked a German user if using a key sequence for every Umlaut they want to type then their answer would be short and too the point. Nein!.
The EU is a bigger market for companies than the USA + Canada. I've been fighing US Centricness for close on 40 years but still people in the US just don't get that not the whole world revolves around the lower 48 states.

Link? The number of US corporations is measured in the millions. The only EU information I could find was about the European Company Database, with a paltry 2,125 entries, some of which had 0 employees or no specific business purpose.

www.worker-participation.eu/European-Company-SE/Facts-Figures

 

[Vulkan]

I feel Apple missed the boat with the iPad Pro in such a way that I'm afraid Microsoft is going to chew them up with the Surface Pro 4.

I think the iPad Pro is a great idea, if it had been running Mac OS X... After all the iPad Pro is touting what Phil Schiller said it was a Desktop Quality CPU... iOS is great but iOS is not an OS you can run professional applications easily.

The keyboard for the iPad Pro feels very 1st generation and it doesnt feel comfortable at all. They should have done something more appealing.

To me as a professional in the field, the iPad Pro is a gimmick for the type of product it is trying to be... (or the shoes trying to fill in rather), but as a tablet it's probably their best tablet ever.

I think it needs 2-3 generations more.

 

[mw360]

To make a good German keyboard would need an additional manufacturing line because of the different keyboard set up.

I thought Tim Cook was supposed to be good at logistics.

 

[iKnackwurst]

Apple is fully aware that the entire world doesn't use a us layout. Apple knows that some foreign customers won't be happy that they can't get the keyboard right away. Apple frequently limits certain release products to the us. You know this very well. Your outrage is difficult to understand.

Except that the keyboard is not limited to the US, but sold worldwide. This combined with the fact that on the Apple website it states that it is only available in US layout with no hints of international layouts is indeed frustrating. Now people will have to gamble if there ever will be different versionsnof the keyboard and either wait or invest in 3rd party keyboards. I don't get what's so difficult to understand about frustration over lack of information.

 

[Jax44]

It would be amazing if Apple Pencil worked with Magic Trackpad 2.
It should for that £109 asking price...

I'm hoping that's the case

 

[theluggage]

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.

The current keyboards aren't even done that way: look at the picture - they don't even have the same number of keys, the return key is a different shape, the shift key is a different size... You can't just rearrange the key caps on the US keyboard. I think there are at least 2 physical layouts: US and International (with 1 extra key).

...we could live with the US layout in the UK, though, although an actual British layout rather than the bizarre hybrid we get now would be nice: Apple's 'British' layout uses the International physical layout, but the actual labels are closer to the US version and don't match the usual layout of British PC keyboards... which is really annoying if you switch between PC and Mac. Although we have an extra key c.f. the US I don't think my finger had ever alighted on the "§/±" key until I typed it just now...

 

[CEmajr]

Because they wouldn't. They would make the same and would be selling both at the same time.

So you think they'd release a combo model that costs as much as an iPad pro and MacBook combined? I don't think people would be exactly buying that $2400 device in droves.

The main reason Apple won't make one of these combo models is because they do not want to cannibalize their Mac and iPad lineups at the same time. It doesn't make business sense. The reason Microsoft is doing it is because they have nothing to lose. No established product line that it would hurt.

I don't think we'll see Apple make a combo device unless Microsoft and these other companies actually start selling lots of them. Money is what makes Apple move. As of right now they're still a pretty low seller in the marketplace.

 

[Carlanga]

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?

But it is a real keyboard. Just not your keyboard. I know it's not the best, but my guess is supply and demand with lower yields due to being new products. I remember when I used to live outside the us. Waiting months for movies, games and tech to come to the country only for it to come 6 months later w higher prices and less features. Worldwide release and the Internet have changed a lot about world distributions. Anyways, if you don't like it then don't buy it.

 

[Max(IT)]

It was a beauty...

There's not that much difference between the US and German layout. It's reallz not that big a deal. You just need to keep a Yen attitude about it.

For us european, a US layout is very limited....

 

[satchmo]

I feel Apple missed the boat with the iPad Pro in such a way that I'm afraid Microsoft is going to chew them up with the Surface Pro 4.

I think the iPad Pro is a great idea, if it had been running Mac OS X... After all the iPad Pro is touting what Phil Schiller said it was a Desktop Quality CPU... iOS is great but iOS is not an OS you can run professional applications easily.

The keyboard for the iPad Pro feels very 1st generation and it doesnt feel comfortable at all. They should have done something more appealing.

To me as a professional in the field, the iPad Pro is a gimmick for the type of product it is trying to be... (or the shoes trying to fill in rather), but as a tablet it's probably their best tablet ever.

I think it needs 2-3 generations more.

Perhaps...I'm sure gen 2 will be better, but I wouldn't rule out either:

a) Apple merging iOS and OS X at some point down the road

or more sooner...

b) developers like Adobe porting over their professional apps for iOS.

 

[bpeeps]

No international Keyboard? What exactly are these guys smoking that they think the whole world uses the US Layout?
Sorry Apple but that is some Grade A ********.

The keyboard is an accessory, don't buy it yet. Grade A problem solved.

 

[Keirasplace]

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...

In Canada we're french speaking and we often use the QWERTY. Doesn't slow me down ;-).

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.

Too bad the demand for PC's is collapsing... Wonder if they'll make it up that way.

 

[PhoneI]

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.

As a SP3 owner I see nothing great about it. Bad tablet, mediocre laptop.

 

[maflynn]

As a SP3 owner I see nothing great about it. Bad tablet, mediocre laptop.

Ok, but for me, I think its great and given the sales volume I think my opinion of it is in line with others. To each his own.\

 

[macs4nw]

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful this thing is even 13 years after its release.

I still have two of those, carefully packed away somewhere, a 17" and a 20"er, and both in perfect working order. For a reasonable price I'm willing to part with them.....

 

[Jakeycov]

So the on screen keyboard will be different to the physical one? Wow. That will be annoying.

 

[sracer]

The whole point of the iPad is that you don't need a keyboard. If you really want the benefit of a physical keyboard, buy a MacBook and be done with it. Use the best machine for the job.

Did you tell Apple that when they produced a keyboard dock for the iPad 1 and 2?

Just because a keyboard is made available doesn't mean that you "need" it to use the iPad. The narcissistic view of, "well I see no need for something therefore no one else needs it" has grown old a long time ago.

 

[Vanilla Face]

I feel Apple missed the boat with the iPad Pro in such a way that I'm afraid Microsoft is going to chew them up with the Surface Pro 4.

I think the iPad Pro is a great idea, if it had been running Mac OS X... After all the iPad Pro is touting what Phil Schiller said it was a Desktop Quality CPU... iOS is great but iOS is not an OS you can run professional applications easily.

The keyboard for the iPad Pro feels very 1st generation and it doesnt feel comfortable at all. They should have done something more appealing.

To me as a professional in the field, the iPad Pro is a gimmick for the type of product it is trying to be... (or the shoes trying to fill in rather), but as a tablet it's probably their best tablet ever.

I think it needs 2-3 generations more.

A 'Pro' device that tops out 128gb is kinda silly. Starting with 32gb like the rest of the iPads is pretty bad too. Thats 3 hours of GoPro footage. The Surface Pro 4 starts at 128gb, is available up to 1tb, and it comes with the Surface Pen.

One of the things I'm most disappointed with is that Apple has shown that '3D Touch' is going to be a big part of iOS but didn't bring it to the new iPad Pro. It's also a bit frustrating that they didn't make a slot for the Apple Pencil that would recharge it.

I completely agree that it's going to be another few generations before it is what it should be.

 

[Jakeycov]

I think if somebody is going to pay £1k on a iPad pro Apple should have the decency to supply a keyboard in the local layout. This is obviously a short term issue because it will severely restrict the market. Everyone in the USA saying its a non issue clearly would be annoyed if they only supplied a British keyboard. Basically they are having some kind of production issue and have focuses on a US keyboard, but some information about availability would be preferable.

 

[rolfbert]

Link? The number of US corporations is measured in the millions. The only EU information I could find was about the European Company Database, with a paltry 2,125 entries, some of which had 0 employees or no specific business purpose.

www.worker-participation.eu/European-Company-SE/Facts-Figures

Because you are looking at a database that shows public companies registered in accordance with the EU corporate law, which is a thing no one does. The number would have been 0 if you looked in 2003..

 

[Irock619]

No international Keyboard? What exactly are these guys smoking that they think the whole world uses the US Layout?
Sorry Apple but that is some Grade A ********.

What would you expect from a U.S. company that most of their sales are in the U.S.???? DUH

 

[rolfbert]

What would you expect from a U.S. company that most of their sales are in the U.S.???? DUH

The same behaviour as with all their other products so far.

 

[deepen03]

yet still no Mouse/Trackpad support in iOS.. epic fail. Surface Pro 4 destroys this!

 

[TallManNY]

I thought Tim Cook was supposed to be good at logistics.

He is. But he is also long since past being the point person on logistics for a bluetooth keyboard.

 

[JimmyHook]

yet still no Mouse/Trackpad support in iOS.. epic fail. Surface Pro 4 destroys this!

Why would you want a mouse in iOS????? That would be an epic design fail. I'd return an iPad if it had mouse support just out of principle. The trackpad is the screen....