iPad Pro pre-orders are here, but there's a twist: some customers have received order confirmations from Apple that say the device is available for pickup at their Apple Store today, Wednesday, though the order form offers a Friday delivery date.
To make this more confusing, Apple announced on Tuesday that preorders would begin Wednesday, but the company didn't tell us when on Wednesday, nor did it announce a firm shipping date. Instead, Apple's press release said they would ship "later this week."
In the meanwhile, this is what we're seeing on Apple's online ordering system for a 128GB Space Gray iPad Pro Wi-Fi before pulling the purchase trigger:
Pre-order Delivery Options for Friday, November 13th, 2015
Here's what one of our members received for his confirmation:
iPad Pro Available Today? Maybe.
For added fun, Apple Pencil and Apple Smart Keyboard are shipping on November 20th.
As of this writing, it's impossible to know if the same-day pickup is real or a mistake. My professional guesstimate is that it's a clerical error in the automated ordering system. We'll know later on Wednesday.
[Update: My professional guesstimate was wrong—the iPad Pro was indeed available for pickup today for those who received such confirmations. - Bryan]