The Apple Pencil and iPad Pro Smart Keyboard Aren't Available to Ship for 4-5 Weeks

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Posted November 13, 2015 at 12:59pm by iClarified

Apple launched the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro two days ago but its Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard accessories aren't available to ship for 4-5 weeks leaving some early customers feeling frustrated.

A statement from Apple on the disappointing launch was provided to Mashable.

"Customers are very excited for iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard," an Apple spokesperson told Mashable. "We have limited supply of Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard in Apple Retail stores. Our stores will continue to receive regular shipments and we encourage customers to visit Apple.com for online availability and delivery dates."

Did you order a new iPad Pro and any accessories? Let us know what you estimated ship dates are in the comments!

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The Apple Pencil and iPad Pro Smart Keyboard Aren't Available to Ship for 4-5 Weeks

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odedoo1 - November 17, 2015 at 6:58pm

What a joke, this is the last straw, Surface Pro 4 here I come!!!!

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Matthew Weaver - November 14, 2015 at 6:48am

I picked up my iPad Pro Wednesday and it then said by the end of the week for the pencil and keyboard. Now, instead, it is the middle of next month. VERY DISAPPOINTING. Incredible failure on Apple.

Hidalgo Rionda - November 14, 2015 at 11:17am

This was on a store or did you order on the online store and the shipping time changed from one estimated to another? Mine is still 5-7 days: Processing Items Available to ship: En 5-7 días lab. Delivers: 26 Nov - 30 Nov by Envío Estándar

gamerscul9870 - November 14, 2015 at 3:09pm

what failure?

Toni69 - November 13, 2015 at 8:42pm

I got the basic Smart Cover with my 128Gb cellular iPad pro. But the price was astonishing 1338€ here in Finland. That converts to 1438$

odedoo1 - November 13, 2015 at 2:13pm

This would have never happened to old Apple, new Apple could careless as long as they got our money!

gamerscul9870 - November 13, 2015 at 6:13pm

And you expect them to lose customers and do this on purpose?

John Nimroth - November 13, 2015 at 1:36pm

The very least Apple could do is upgrade all Apple Pencil / iPad Pro Smart keyboard orders to free expedited shipping. They heavily promoted the Apple Pencil / Smart keyboard and now they are asking for 5 weeks to deliver them ? This is a serious manufacturing & logistics failure from the part of Apple. We have been waiting for two whole months for an exact release date for the iPad Pro. They didn't say anything regarding non-US pricing before launch. Now they are telling us 'here's the iPad, but you can't have the accessories, which make the iPad Pro what it is'. Great..

Hidalgo Rionda - November 13, 2015 at 5:43pm

I don't think it's a problem, if you are introducing a new product to the market you can't predict with 100% accuracy the sales of the producto, but you can expect a range in sales, you have to balance everything out, because your providers charge you according to a capacity, so if you make a contract expecting 300'000 units monthly you are expecting to sell at least 3 million units trough the first year, so, if during launch you've got 2 million orders and you have in stock 1.5 million, that means the sales went great but not everything is sit and sing, when the first burst goes down the sales and the flow of the product must stabilize around your predictions....... So.... It's not just an "I can buy lots of product to keep a stock" it's a balance between having stock stopped in warehouses, new technology available ASAP for your customers, complying with providers, etc, etc.

John Nimroth - November 13, 2015 at 9:27pm

Thanks for the detailed analysis. You are right, but shouldn't Apple have predicted the initial burst in demand for the Pencil / Keyboard products, and adjust initial production capacity accordingly? The iPad Pro itself is in ample supply. Apple shouldn't be surprised with this level of initial demand, it happens with almost every single one of their product releases. This is not Samsung we are talking about, after all.

Hidalgo Rionda - November 14, 2015 at 11:13am

Here is where I say you must balance out everything, you can't ask the provider to provide "more" at the beginning, if you go and make a commitment to buy 300k units monthly the provider builds the infrastructure, hires the employees, puts the assembly lines in place, asking to have a major capacity at the beginning, you wouldn't like to be one of the "one-month employees" which are only hired for this hike, but overall you as provider can't take down assembly lines with that ease, the costs shoots trough the roof, what you do as the company you order ahead and receive the items for 2, 3 months, so you make a stock to tolerate the first burst, but again you need to balance it, first each month that you have in a warehouse 300k pencils is a month with $29700000US Stopped and devaluating and risking the competition developing something similar, you must sell ASAP, so yes, you accumulate certain amount for the first release, but if this is occurring now is because the sales exceeded by far what apple was expecting, they did not expect it to sell that well, you must remember also that the iPad sales have been steadily going down so they maybe didn't expect that much in sales of the accessories. Anyway, bear in mind the principal factor: Apple is not keeping their customers waiting a month for their accessories because they want them to, at least they are being honest beforehead, other companies do not show estimated shipping times, and if apple wants to boost sales only they just need to lie and say "we will ship in 3 days" people will buy and they can just delay, delay and delay the shipping, "they have already sold it so, doesn't matters" would be the money seeking attitude.

Hidalgo Rionda - November 13, 2015 at 1:06pm

I ordered the pencil and it is still processing, but says available to ship in 4-6 days, I'm from Mexico.