11/11: Apple's hybrid iPad, Apple Pencil on sale in UAE this Diwali

Call it Apple’s Diwali bonus.

The UAE is among the list of 48 countries where Apple’s new iPad Pro – which may be used as a hybrid laptop and slate when combined with the (also newly launched) Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil – will go on sale tomorrow, 11-11.

The Cupertino-based technology firm yesterday announced that the iPad Pro will be available to order online from Wednesday, November 11, from Apple.com even as it will arrive at its physical retail stores, select carriers and authorised resellers later in the week.

Apple Pencil and Apple’s new Smart Keyboard will also be available to order on Wednesday.

“The early response to iPad Pro from app developers and our customers has been incredible, and we’re excited to get iPad Pro into the hands of customers around the world this week,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in a media statement.

The iPad Pro comes in three metallic finishes including silver, gold and space grey, and starts in the UAE at Dh3,099 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and Dh4,199 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular 128GB model.

The iPad Pro is Apple’s first enterprise-focused tablet, and makes its debut on a crowded category. According to a recent report by Strategy Analytics, Apple’s iPad Pro will join a market that is primed for growth, thanks to the success of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 and larger 2-in-1 Detachable Tablets from traditional PC vendors like Lenovo, Acer, and Asus.

The new iPad Pro will have to compete against the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (which went on sale only a couple of weeks ago), the Asus Transformer Book 2-in-1 and ZenPad tablets, the Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 7000, the Acer Aspire E-11 and predator series, and the Google Pixel C tablet, among a hst of others.

Apple, however, maintains that it is equal to the task. “iPad Pro is the most powerful iPad we’ve ever made, giving users the ability to be even more creative and more productive with the epic 12.9-inch Retina display, powerful 64-bit A9X chip and ground-breaking Apple Pencil and new Smart Keyboard. We can’t wait to see what they do with iPad Pro,” said Schiller.

Apple claims that the iPad Pro can complete successfully against most portable PCs with its large display (12.9-inch Retina) sporting 5.6 million pixels (the most ever in an iOS device).

Under the hood, the iPad Pro sports the new third-generation 64-bit A9X chip, which offers double the memory bandwidth and storage performance of the old A8X, and (in Schiller’s words) 'desktop-class performance.'

“It is faster than 80 per cent of the portable PCs that shipped in the last 12 months,” Schiller said while unveiling the iPad Pro two months ago, on September 9.

In addition, the firm says that the new Apple Pencil for iPad Pro makes drawing and sketching feel fluid and natural, and delivers accuracy for activities like fine art illustration and detailed 3D design. Apple Pencil will be available in the UAE for Dh399 and Smart Keyboard will be available in charcoal grey for Dh649.

A built-in Lightning connector on Apple Pencil makes for quick and easy pairing and charging. Apple’s new Smart Keyboard further extends the utility of iPad Pro, it notes.

“iPad Pro enables new forms of mobile creativity that will help transform how creatives work,” said Scott Belsky, vice president of Products at Adobe.

“iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are the new pad and pen,” said Evi Meyer, CEO of 3D sketching app UMake. “With its simple use and powerful computing capacity, designers can leverage these tools to reimagine their sketching experience and finally elevate their flat work to 3D.”

Besides the UAE, the iPad Pro will be available in: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, US, UK, Uruguay and US Virgin Islands.

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