Well the launch is a failure - in communication. A big fat failure IMHO.
I'm thinking there may even be a delay at this point.
Define "failure." You are unhappy about it because Apple has not kept up the hype after the announcement. Apple has not responded to any of the multitudinous rumors. You even talk about "a delay" as if the rumored November 6 date had had anything behind it other than the wild speculation of the media. Apple announced the iPad Pro, and said it would be available in November. Go to their web site, it still says November. As I write this, we are only a week and a day into the month. I don't call that a failure.
If you want to see a launch failure, look at the launch of the Nissan Leaf: Many of the earliest orders were lost, then two months later were put at the end of the line, in back of orders placed much later. Then many of those cars were "lost" according to Nissan, who never explained what that meant. Then many got paint damage and were held in port for repair rather than allowing the dealers to handle it, so there were more multi-month delays. Then orders were shifted around so that people who had been promised a specific car by VIN number were re-assigned other cars further down in the production run, meaning more delays. THAT was failure
Apple's silence and refusal to respond to rumors is NOT a failure. And false release date rumors is not a delay. If the Pro is not available by November 30, that will be a delay.
As for the tablet itself, it's aimed at a small market, which is why they have only made a small number of them. It's not intended to "save" the iPad. It's intended to broaden the market by increasing the range of sizes and computing power to choose from. Apple will now be selling a small tablet, a standard-size tablet, and a large tablet. They will have a tablet for every need. They will not have a tablet that doubles as a laptop, but this fact is not a failure, it's a decision not to enter that particular market, probably because a tablet-laptop hybrid is a compromise that can never be as good as either.
I don't think it'll be a failure, but it won't be the iPad sales saviour either. Sure there will be the initial "new thing" surge on day/week one, but long term I don't see it doing any better than any other new iPad, 9.7 or otherwise.
The fact is that a larger screen is not enough to make people upgrade. The other thread where a recent survey showed that 20% of iPad users still use iPad 2 and 18% still use the mini 1 shows that people are happy with their tablets because they're primarily media consumption devices or web browsing devices. The current iPad user base isn't going to spend that kind of money just to do the same thing on a bigger screen, and I don't see enough people who use laptops replacing them with a Pro for that to be the main reason it sells.
Everything you say is true.
But the iPad Pro is not intended to be "the iPad sales savior." It's intended to fill a market niche that is currently empty. And the fact that most iPad Mini and iPad Air users are happy with their tablets is a mark of success. The Pro will be built in small numbers because Apple knows the market for it is small. The Pro will be a success because there is no other tablet of that size or power, so Apple will be the first to have small, "normal" and large tablets available.
I look forward to seeing it and holding it so that I can decide whether the weight and heft are comfortable enough to enjoy using it while sitting in my easy chair or in bed before sleep, and whether or not it's too heavy and/or bulky to carry while traveling.
