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iPad Pro Share your posts for Smart Keyboard availability

looks like most atlanta stores got it in early today. tomorrow i'll go back to checking for opening instead of early afternoon. this game sucks.

i checked perimeter, mall of ga and cumberland. i dont bother with lenox b/c by the time id get down there i'm pretty sure it would be gone.

north point swears they've never gotten the pencil or the keyboard in. i dont believe them. although, that mall has gone down hill, so maybe they are havent.
 
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Next time ill take a photo and the time will be in the EXiF. It was the only one sitting there on the shelf. No  Pencils however. I ended up going with the Logitech one because it works better for me even though it is bulkier. I tried the Smart Cover keyboard again today and the fabric texture is throwing me off. I think I like plastic keys or something a little bit more slick.
 
AppleRobert said:
Was looking for both the Pencil and Keyboard in Central NJ Apple store yesterday. Scored the keyboard, they only had two, which might become even harder to find since pencils are now showing up but at least my trip was not a waste.
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Which one?
 
Checked the Millenia store in Florida yesterday and they had nothing. They said they would get 10 keyboards in today and have at least 4 immediately snatched up by the business team. I got a business account set up and got a keyboard today from the Florida Mall store. The rep said it was one of the only one's they'd received.
 
My Smart Keyboard arrived today after being ordered on launch day with email confirmation at 43 minutes past launch hour. I'm in the UK by the way.

I think we need to cut Apple a bit of slack to be honest, they can either delay launches until they have enough stock to survive the initial surge or they can launch a few weeks earlier than that and at least some people get the product sooner. Personally I'd rather they launched sooner rather than build inventory just for it to sit in a warehouse.
 
craig1410 said:
Personally I'd rather they launched sooner rather than build inventory just for it to sit in a warehouse.
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This approach only works if there's a mechanism to keep potential customers informed of stock. So, yes, go ahead and do a slow trickle out, but allow the customers to see stock levels at their local store and reserve one for instore pick-up, first-come first-served.

The current situation is ridiculous: launch the product, trickle some units into stores unannounced and the customer has to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing around trying to find out if they're in stock and then make a mad dash for the store hoping it's still there when they arrive. What kind of customer experience is that?
 
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Well, I managed to get a Pencil from my local store after they called me and said I could either come straight there and buy it or pay over the phone and collect it a bit later. They were happy to hold it for me. That was the business team granted but I certainly can't fault them. The online order also arrived within the time estimated when I ordered it.
 
It's not just that but also the fact that some people are clogging everything up by preordering through several different retailers to see which they receive first. It's just not clean. And the fact that a rando can walk in and make a stroke of luck purchase while others have been waiting patiently, is a bag of poop. It's like that Christmas where I only had four of the Lions that make Voltron. That's just great. Volton can just hop around until the yellow lion shows up at Sears.
 
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craig1410 said:
My Smart Keyboard arrived today after being ordered on launch day with email confirmation at 43 minutes past launch hour. I'm in the UK by the way.
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I ordered ~20 minutes after you and mine is STILL in 'processing'.

craig1410 said:
I think we need to cut Apple a bit of slack to be honest, they can either delay launches until they have enough stock to survive the initial surge or they can launch a few weeks earlier than that and at least some people get the product sooner. Personally I'd rather they launched sooner rather than build inventory just for it to sit in a warehouse.
Click to expand...

Let's be clear - Apple has THE largest and strongest supply chain of ANY company in the world. If they wanted to have a keyboard and pencil available for ~1/10 iPad Pros sold ... no one would have a better shot than them.

I can appreciate the difficulty in rapid scaling and ramping production ... but I feel that since the selling point of the Pro was leveraged on the Pencil & keyboard ... not having them is a supply chain failure. And inside Apple there should be some significant stress in the supply chain department about this failure.
 
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txa1265 said:
I ordered ~20 minutes after you and mine is STILL in 'processing'.



Let's be clear - Apple has THE largest and strongest supply chain of ANY company in the world. If they wanted to have a keyboard and pencil available for ~1/10 iPad Pros sold ... no one would have a better shot than them.

I can appreciate the difficulty in rapid scaling and ramping production ... but I feel that since the selling point of the Pro was leveraged on the Pencil & keyboard ... not having them is a supply chain failure. And inside Apple there should be some significant stress in the supply chain department about this failure.
Click to expand...

I'd argue Amazon.com has a bigger supply chain - but yes, for consumer hardware/electronics, Apple takes the case. And yes, they failed at delivering this time around.
 
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If your "world" is only in USA, then apple is probably the biggest suppy chain.

Compared to China, Apple's supply chain is just a joke. Apple can't even fulfill the needs in "Cupertino"......

txa1265 said:
I ordered ~20 minutes after you and mine is STILL in 'processing'.



Let's be clear - Apple has THE largest and strongest supply chain of ANY company in the world. If they wanted to have a keyboard and pencil available for ~1/10 iPad Pros sold ... no one would have a better shot than them.

I can appreciate the difficulty in rapid scaling and ramping production ... but I feel that since the selling point of the Pro was leveraged on the Pencil & keyboard ... not having them is a supply chain failure. And inside Apple there should be some significant stress in the supply chain department about this failure.
Click to expand...
 
hagalah said:
If your "world" is only in USA, then apple is probably the biggest suppy chain.

Compared to China, Apple's supply chain is just a joke. Apple can't even fulfill the needs in "Cupertino"......
Click to expand...

Apple has routinely bought major chunks of the world supply of memory and display panels, effectively shutting out others (including Samsung) and making things more difficult for others.

In the consumer electronics industry worldwide there is simply no other company with the clout, history of delivering orders and pile of cash to command that level of supply chain dominance.

Not an opinion - nor really a debate point. The whole thing is that given their pitch for the device and their ability to sequester large scale manufacturing capability ... they should have been able to do better. That is all.
 
SF union square apparently never had stock of the keyboard today. Can't really know for sure as the employees are pretty clueless.
 
I had two different employees tell me 2 different things:
  1. One told me they get shipments every day and that I should keep checking between 12p-1p. Probably the best bet until they actually enable in-store pickup (which will probably happen just about the time that smart keyboard that I ordered online 11/11 ships on 12/7....)
  2. another told me check the online store/app and I should be able to reserve for in store pickup if they have any in stock. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the  pencils that were sitting on the shelf in front of him didn't show up as available for in-store pickup when I added them to my cart while standing in the store....
 
jimnaze said:
It's not just that but also the fact that some people are clogging everything up by preordering through several different retailers to see which they receive first. It's just not clean. And the fact that a rando can walk in and make a stroke of luck purchase while others have been waiting patiently, is a bag of poop. It's like that Christmas where I only had four of the Lions that make Voltron. That's just great. Volton can just hop around until the yellow lion shows up at Sears.
Click to expand...
You were waiting for the Yellow lion...I was waiting for the Blue lion! Both of us on Christmas morning with our amputee Voltrons :(
 
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Are Best Buy, Apple Store the only places available to purchase the keyboard from?
 
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