Why Your New iPad Won't Be Delivered Early

[Bob Coxner]

Not sure how much to believe in this story, although Cult of Mac is usually a good source.

http://www.cultofmac.com/152290/why-your-new-ipad-wont-be-delivered-before-friday/

"Because Apple has the new iPads locked up in their own private 18-wheeler trucks. These trucks are on FedEx property, and entered into FedEx’s system, but FedEx has been told that Apple will not unlock these trucks until Thursday evening."

 

[Stealthipad]

Sound like a great way to insure one does not get deleivered early or gets stolen by a greedy FedEx employee!

 

[hefeglass]

i could believe it..

 

[scottness]

Eh, does it matter that much?

 

[soco]

I don't believe it, but it's plausible. I only don't believe it because I think it's based on scuttlebutt surrounding Apple's usual preferential treatment by other companies. This just sounds like it goes too far and seems silly.

 

[davidinva]

Mine will be later because I can't afford it now. (Sigh)

 

[seajay96]

Doesn't answer the "why" it won't be delivered early. I can understand why Apple sets a delivery date that allows for time to get the shipments out there, but WHY, if the iPads are already at FEDEX, can't they be delivered? What difference does a couple of days make? It's already been revealed to the public, so there's no secrecy issue here...just a consumer frustration one.


btw, I am not waiting on an iPad3, just an observer.

 

[scottness]

Doesn't answer the "why" it won't be delivered early. I can understand why Apple sets a delivery date that allows for time to get the shipments out there, but WHY, if the iPads are already at FEDEX, can't they be delivered? What difference does a couple of days make? It's already been revealed to the public, so there's no secrecy issue here...just a consumer frustration one.


btw, I am not waiting on an iPad3, just an observer.

It's a logistical magical thing to have all iPads simultaneously delivered.

 

[bjmach]

I think its a BS story. Here is why, mine is sitting in Tennessee. Which is where all my Apple ordered stuff has ever come from. Its been sitting there since Friday with a delivery exception and standard Overnight. If they were to unlock the trucks Thursday night, then I wouldn't get my delivery on 16 March. My iPad should move by Wednesday night early Thursday morning and ship overnight to my Kansas City Fed Ex who then in turn puts it on a van that drives 1.5 hrs to my house and drops it off by 430pm Friday.

 

[Southernboyj]

It's a logistical magical thing to have all iPads simultaneously delivered.

Yeah, it's so magical that when my iPhone 4S was simultaneously delivered with everyone else, the servers were so bogged many of us couldn't even get the device activated, took me several hours of constantly trying. Sure magical experience Apple is pushing for.

(Don't even get me started on the day iOS 5 was released)

----------

I think its a BS story. Here is why, mine is sitting in Tennessee. Which is where all my Apple ordered stuff has ever come from. Its been sitting there since Friday with a delivery exception and standard Overnight. If they were to unlock the trucks Thursday night, then I wouldn't get my delivery on 16 March. My iPad should move by Wednesday night early Thursday morning and ship overnight to my Kansas City Fed Ex who then in turn puts it on a van that drives 1.5 hrs to my house and drops it off by 430pm Friday.

Same situation, mines in Nashville as it has been since friday, listed for Standard overnight, although I'm in Alabama so it's not far from me

 

[psonice]

I really doubt this is true.

First, since when did apple have a big fleet of delivery trucks? They pay other companies to deliver for them because they're an electronics company, not a shipping company.

Second, trucks make money when they're moving and delivering stuff. Locking them up and leaving them for a week makes no sense at all either, because they could just rent space in a warehouse for a week instead.

The reason why they won't deliver them early is most likely just that apple's paying some company (synchreon here in the UK) to hold them in a warehouse, and hand them over to the delivery companies on weds/thurs. They'll also have instructed the delivery companies to deliver *on* friday, and not before.

Remember, we ordered them on the basis that they'd be delivered on the 16th. That's effectively the contract, so you have no right to it before that date, and apple can tell the company to deliver them then and they'll happily do that.

 

[spaghetti head]

If they are locked up in Fed Ex trucks, why did my notification say it was coming by UPS?

 

[ano0oj]

I highly doubt this....if they're smart, they're going to get it to your nearest fedex facility in your city by Thursday.
Mine is in Nashville at the moment, and I imagine it would be a nightmare if they started delivering EVERYONES the same day when they've had them for days.
So I'm thinking mine will be in Houston by Tuesday/Wednesday, but they won't officially deliver until Friday

 

[bjmach]

If they are locked up in Fed Ex trucks, why did my notification say it was coming by UPS?

LOL very nice forgot about that

 

[blue2noise]

Doesn't answer the "why" it won't be delivered early. I can understand why Apple sets a delivery date that allows for time to get the shipments out there, but WHY, if the iPads are already at FEDEX, can't they be delivered? What difference does a couple of days make? It's already been revealed to the public, so there's no secrecy issue here...just a consumer frustration one.


btw, I am not waiting on an iPad3, just an observer.

"Hello Apple? People are getting their iPads early but i didnt get mine. Why?"

That's why.

 

[Kadman]

Releases like this (yes, I've purchased at each iPhone launch and iPad 2) are purely selfish on Apple's part. It puts strain on the store staff, often times the security of the location staff, shipping channel partners, phone/data carriers, etc. It also inconveniences people at these venues wanting to get into stores for mall locations that may be blocked by lines. It even frustrates those who want to visit the Apple Stores, but have no interest in the iPhone or iPad and just want something for their Mac but can't get in because they closed the store in the middle of the day for a product launch. To top it all off, a large majority of customers who buy the new product are frustrated through a combination of activation woes and delays between shipping & receiving.

I'm not naive. I understand why Apple does this. They get the marketing hype & attention they need to feed their machine. It gives the media a date and lines to shoot video of. Yes, this happens for movies, both in theaters and advertising leading up to home release dates (just as it does with music & other media). The difference is that it's not just a transaction. Their systems, nor the systems of the carriers can take the strain of this type of launch. If Apple truly had it's customer's interests at heart, they would bill the launch as "Shipping on xxx date" and let shipping logistics spread the load.

In short, we're all inconveniences with our initial experience because Apple needs attention.

 

[ZBoater]

It's a logistical magical thing to have all iPads simultaneously delivered.

It's like Santa Claus. Who knew he'd rent out his delivery system to Apple?

 

[Gathomblipoob]

It's totally plausible. My girlfriend and I saw the Apple trucks going through the back gate of Area 51 near Rachel, NV a few months ago.

Yep, I totally believe it.

 

[dskillzhtown]

Releases like this (yes, I've purchased at each iPhone launch and iPad 2) are purely selfish on Apple's part. It puts strain on the store staff, often times the security of the location staff, shipping channel partners, phone/data carriers, etc. It also inconveniences people at these venues wanting to get into stores for mall locations that may be blocked by lines. It even frustrates those who want to visit the Apple Stores, but have no interest in the iPhone or iPad and just want something for their Mac but can't get in because they closed the store in the middle of the day for a product launch. To top it all off, a large majority of customers who buy the new product are frustrated through a combination of activation woes and delays between shipping & receiving.

I'm not naive. I understand why Apple does this. They get the marketing hype & attention they need to feed their machine. It gives the media a date and lines to shoot video of. Yes, this happens for movies, both in theaters and advertising leading up to home release dates (just as it does with music & other media). The difference is that it's not just a transaction. Their systems, nor the systems of the carriers can take the strain of this type of launch. If Apple truly had it's customer's interests at heart, they would bill the launch as "Shipping on xxx date" and let shipping logistics spread the load.

In short, we're all inconveniences with our initial experience because Apple needs attention.

Apple has retail partners that they want to keep happy. So you never want to have one partner selling before another, even if that "other partner" is Apple themselves. So they do the launches at the same time. So no partner has a perceived advantage over the other. Just keeps everyone happy. Apple doesn't want Wal-Mart selling before Best Buy, or Radio Shack and none of those stores want Apple delivering before they can even sell the item. It would cause too many problems.

Not sure where you get the idea that systems and/or carriers can't handle this kind of strain. How many launches have they had so far? Seems that everyone is still standing. I know you want your iPad, but let's not make logistical realities into some kind of conspiracy. I am fine the way it works. I'll get my iPad3 delivered Friday, others will stand in line for it in person at stores. This time next year we can all get ready to do it again.

I do agree that the fanatics, I am somewhat one myself, help drive the hype machine but I don't think that pictures of people standing in line are going to make anyone not already interested in the new product all of a sudden have a desire to get one.

 

[Kadman]

Apple has retail partners that they want to keep happy. So you never want to have one partner selling before another, even if that "other partner" is Apple themselves. So they do the launches at the same time. So no partner has a perceived advantage over the other. Just keeps everyone happy. Apple doesn't want Wal-Mart selling before Best Buy, or Radio Shack and none of those stores want Apple delivering before they can even sell the item. It would cause too many problems.

Not sure where you get the idea that systems and/or carriers can't handle this kind of strain. How many launches have they had so far? Seems that everyone is still standing. I know you want your iPad, but let's not make logistical realities into some kind of conspiracy. I am fine the way it works. I'll get my iPad3 delivered Friday, others will stand in line for it in person at stores. This time next year we can all get ready to do it again.

I do agree that the fanatics, I am somewhat one myself, help drive the hype machine but I don't think that pictures of people standing in line are going to make anyone not already interested in the new product all of a sudden have a desire to get one.

They've had 5 launches for the iPhone and 2 for the iPad. No offense, but if you weren't aware of the strain, then you weren't tuned into any media or reports on sites like this or general tech sites. Apple's own systems couldn't handle the activation strain, and then when they could, specific carrier systems failed to activate correctly. In some cases it left activations in limbo states requiring multiple calls to get sorted. Hell, even last year's iPhone 4S launch had UPS straining. My regular UPS guy walked up my driveway at 7pm in the evening. He said they added staff in many areas to handle the load and were still having to expand their work hours. By his comments it was the extra bulk of it being a signature required package with that many units that caused the pain.

The partner advantage issue doesn't factor into it. With these products, all launch inventories will sell. Therefore, if they gave Walmart 100,000 and Best Buy 80,000, etc. (making those numbers up, obviously), all will sell regardless of which chains branches start receiving them earlier in the week than other branches.

I'll have my new iPad on Friday as well. The unknown is around activations, particularly on the 4G models.

 

[Gregintosh]

This makes sense. It looks like even though they have al the time in the world, they are going to be overnighting all the packages at once.

I guess this is a good way to prevent leaks. I am sure Apple got a heck of a discount on a few million overnight deliveries on the same day.

Here's a copy & paste from my tracking screen:

Picked up
NASHVILLE, TN

Ship date Mar 10, 2012
Estimated delivery Mar 16, 2012 by 3:00 PM

Service type Standard Overnight

Date/Time Activity Location DetailsMar 10, 2012 4:32 PM
Picked up
NASHVILLE, TN Future delivery requested

 

[bobsentell]

I doubt this story is true. Even for Apple, that is a bit much. Imagine to cost to do all of that. Even if the truck is filled to the roof with iPads, that seriously cuts on the bottom line.

Edit: Mine is in Nashville as well. They would have to release them before before Thursday night as all of my FedEx packages have to go through Memphis.

 

[worldwearyeyes]

I can all but guarantee that this is true.

No, Apple does not have their own trucks. They do not have their own warehouses. Their transportation and warehousing are managed through another company called a "third-party logistics (3PL)" company.

I've also worked for FedEx, and I can tell you that it's very feasible none of these will get released until Thursday evening. FedEx (and I assume UPS) can get a package (or 500k) as late as 2am and still have it to you "next day."

The world of logistics is far cooler and more complicated that most folks realize. If the Friday delivery were simply left up to the local FedEx drivers and stores, there would be a thousand stories of folks getting it early.

 

[Gregintosh]

LOL very nice forgot about that

Some iPads are going UPS, some Fedex. I am sure no one carriers has the capacity for a system shock like this.

If they sold 5 million pre-orders, and they are all signature required packages, thats going to take a bite out of any logistics system, considering that its not like these logistics companies are stopping or fulfilling other regularly scheduled deliveries.

 

[noobinator]

Why not just make available for order on 3/7 and ship as soon as possible? That would help the logistical nightmare but would kill the Marketing/PR.