According to a new report by KGI, Apple will soon introduce a stylus accessory for its iPad products, targeted at the expected (but still officially unconfirmed) larger-screened ~12 inch iPad Pro. Both products are quoted for release sometime this year, with KGI most recently quoting a Q2 launch window. The stylus would apparently charge using a Lightning cable.
Although KGI reports tend to be based off of supply-chain sources, which have proven very reliable in the past, Ming-Chi Kuo does not allude to any such indicators for the stylus prediction report. Instead, he highlights a number of patent filings in recent years by Apple on tablet styli and a need to differentiate the upcoming more premium iPad aside from screen size.
According to Kuo, the stylus would be available as an optional accessory, as the cost of the stylus would increase the ticket price of the iPad too much to warrant bundling in to the box. This makes sense given that iOS has been predicated on finger-sized touch input since its inception in 2007. It’s not clear whether the stylus would be compatible with older iPad models, but it certainly appears that it will be presented as a professional add-on for the larger iPad. Kuo predicts that Apple may begin bundling the accessory in future iPad hardware revisions if it proves popular.
Although this quote is a few years old, and obviously different people are in charge of Apple product marketing today, it is still worth noting that Steve Jobs was not a public fan of styluses. When the iPhone was unveiled he derided the input mechanism as clunky and easily lost. Around the launch of the original iPad, he also famously proclaimed ‘If you see a stylus, they blew it’.
Interpret that as you will. Personally, there is a big difference between supporting hardware styluses and requiring them to use the product. As an optional accessory, it is pretty clear that Apple’s offering will be more of a niche purchase, with finger-based input remaining the primary interaction paradigm, with the stylus assisting activities like note-taking and drawing when appropriate.
What do you think? Are tablet styluses a useful accessory option? Many third-party companies offer rudimentary stylus accessories today, although none seem to have had widespread uptake. An Apple-branded stylus would definitely help adoption, of course.
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Now people are going to quote Jobs from 2007 about styluses and other people gonna say he’s rolling in his grave. People, it was 2007 in tech years this is like a century. iPhones or other smartphones back then is not as powerful as the smartwatches today.. Things change, expectations change, why can’t you. Nobody forces anyone to use it anyway.
The problem with a stylus is developers start to expect it and get lazy by making tiny touch targets etc. That’s why they wanted to avoid it from the get go. Not to mention that’s always the first thing to break or get lost.
You don’t have use it unless you want too. Now, that was easy was it not.
@Gregory,
Didnt you just read the reasons why a stylus is a bad idea????
You can LOSE them. And a developer can make smaller touch targets, which would make it difficult to tap without a stylus.
“Who wants a stylus? Yuck”
As I said below, this is a really bad, poor, short sighted idea. The reason the iphone and ipad are as successful today as they are is because they did not go this route.
I had a device with a stylus, and I have as much interest in an ipad with a stylus as I do as a laptop with a touch screen, zero.
Hear hear! I 2nd that!
…as soon as Apple starts making convertible laptops with touch screens you will most certainly love it, because they are plain awesome in terms of functionality. You just badmouth the concept TODAY because Apple doesn’t offer it – yet – and MS does, so you must pooh pooh it.
I never thought I would ever want a stylus. When I read Steve Jobs’ quote about how our fingers provide the best stylus, I agreed for most things while consuming content. But in the classroom (and even at my job, while taking work notes), I am very open to trying a stylus with my iPad Air and seeing how it works.
If you want to take notes with it, which I think a 12.9″ iPad would be perfectly capable of doing then you’d need a stylus. You can draw works quickly with your fingers. IMO, Apple has some of the best handwriting recognition software out there and its not really being used. An iPad Pro would be a perfect fit for the technology and yes, a stylus would be required. The iPad Pro would also make a great drawing tablet and yes, that too would require a stylus. You can’t draw accurately with your finger. This is a different product for different people and it requires a different way of doing things. I don’t see this as simply a larger iPad.
Use one the, there are plenty of third party ones and a number of apps that support them. Just don’t expect a native one.
And why shouldn’t he expect the native one? The third-party styli are all junk, because the iPad doesn’t support capacitive touch. Obviously, Apple is at least considering support native stylus, as evidenced from their filed patents and this rumor.
I think a stylus is the wrong name for this. It’s more like a digital pen. The difference is, that you don’t need it in order to operate the iPad and navigate around in the menus etc. It’s an accessory that offers added functionality, where pen-input is preferable to finger touch input. Taking notes and drawing are two obvious use case scenarios, where an e-pen is better than finger touch input. I can only see this addition as a good thing for the iPad platform.
you mean like iPen? or Apple Pen?
Big hands, blunt fingers, neuropathy, repetitive strain injuries: Cheap, easily-replaced styli greatly enhanced iPad accessibility for me. Still waiting on full keyboard access.
It won’t be cheap. Its not just a “plastic pen” we’re talking about, but something of class.
Why will this ‘stylus’ need to be charged? That’s what I don’t understand
if it’s real, it’d likely have sensors on the inside detecting proximity to the tablet (to negate spurious inputs from your hand into the touch screen while the pen is in use) and a gyroscope for more precise motion. They could add other sensors in there too, ones that we haven’t thought of yet
Once this happens we can start hammering Microsoft for copying Apple with the whole stylus thing!
??? I know you’re kidding but MS had the stylus-only windows mobile/pocketPC OS from about 2000-2009 and has recently introduced the Surface 3 tablet/laptop which is very pen-oriented, although it is certainly no longer needed to use the Surface 3. So…since you have MS styli present both before, during AND after Apple’s, there will be absolutely no way to call it “copying”.
As I noted before… look to the new iWatch that is coming out. It has something that no one else seems to be talking about. It’s surface is ‘Pressure Sensitive’. I believe this surface is going to be included in the 12″ tablet and will be key for a pen to be used for drawing and sensing pressure, instead of a Blue Tooth pen having the pressure sensitivity in it. Yet no one else seems to think this observation special. So maybe I am just imagining stuff.
That’d be a killer feature, though what makes it possible on the Watch is a flexible OLED display. So if the iPad were to pick that up, it would be a HUGE shift away from the tech currently inside it
“look to the new iWatch that is coming out.”
The what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cux9T9wvERs&sns=em#t=3s
That was hilarious!!!
Although I never hear anyone else making a big deal of it… look to the iWatch and the Pen to be a big connection. The new iWatch that is coming has a pressure sensitive screen. I believe this will be key to a pen input device for being able to detect pressure while drawing (as opposed to a Blu-Tooth pen being the one sensing the pressure). Only time will tell if I made a leap of figuring it out before anyone else outside of apple did.
“look to the new iWatch that is coming out.”
The what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cux9T9wvERs&sns=em#t=3s
What a copycat samsung has the 12 inch note pro with stylus and looks who’s copying copy who
Damn it! Phil Shiller exhausts, I thought no one would notice.
Since 2011 with Galaxy Note 1 ;-)
Sony ericsson P800, P900, P910, p990, P1i…..2002-2008…..
MS had a stylus back in 2001 when they first introduced tablet PCs in 2001.
Actually, what should really shock you is that Apple used a stylus in their Newton back in 1987.
Newton MessagePad was introduced in 1993, actually. Still, a stylus is nothing new. A digital iPen with sensors could be useful on an iPad Pro.
Research on the Newton started in 1987.
For drawing or photo apps a stylus would come in very handy
As an artist, I’d buy one.
As an artist, you’d need to earn real money from a real job to spend in the real world first.
Um, pretty sure plenty of artists are making ‘real’ money.
As a professional (radiologist) I do a lot of meeting and planning and quick appointments during patient examinations. I use a lot of jotting down ideas, making quick notes and integrating photos/internet documents/slides presentation in my notes, instantly, without a hassle. I find out there are a lot of colleagues with the same interest but without no decent possibility to do this on our iPhone, iPad, MBP15 which I own. It is a shame not to have the possibility to do note taking with an integrated pen. For my job I have to do it with S-Notes from Samsung tablet, a shame for Apple.
Personally, a stylus (digital pen) is the one accessory I want most. I need it for note taking and drawing. Plus, with age, neuropathy in my fingers makes it increasingly difficult to maneuver a touch screen. I hope such a pen has a fine point option as opposed to the large blunt point of styluses today.
Surface pro 3 has a stylus and better screen ratio… Apple fans need to wake up
Better for watching a movie maybe, but not so much for web browsing or reading. It’s a *different* screen ratio. Each is different. I’m excited to see where the surface pro line goes. If I ever stop buying iPads, I’d get a surface pro for sure
Well I don’t own a surface pro 3 but I’ve owned an iPad 2 (which is sitting in my closet with the screen ripped off…) and a nook hd+. I prefer the 3:2 screen of the nook better than 4:3 of iPad. It is better in portrait mode because it isn’t so square and it is the same in landscape, not to square, not to 16:9/16:10.
Now 16:9/16:10 is the worst ratio for portrait! I try using my dell venue 11 pro’s 10.8 inch screen in Portrait and it is too tall and no width!
Anyways… I would like to see more 3:2 tablets. I think this iPad pro will be too big with 12 inch 4:3 ratio screen
I’m a huge mac fan, but MS deserves credit for the Surface Pro 3. I purchased it for my lectures where I wanted a stylus that I could write on screen. The SP3 is awesome at everything it does except work without being tethered to an outlet. Battery life sucks.
Oh! Now Apple Fan boys are saying, “it is okay to use stylus .” LOL This Apple Sheep dumbasses are freaking hilarious to the max. If Tim Cook tells them to suck his cock they will without no questions asked since its the “new innovative” thing to do LOL!
I think it says a lot when you have to laugh at your own jokes.
I hope the stylus has a Lightning port… an not replaceable batteries. I’m sick of replacing batteries on my keyboard, Magic trackpad and AppleTV remote.
I have had a stylus, but never needed it. I sure would love to have a pressure sensitive drawing stylus like my Wacom.
KGI said 12.9″ iPad Pro not 12″.
Retarded. From someone who had a stylus in general computing… retarded.
Only has one good use, art, which in the case of tablets, is a niche market.
I would love a for-real stylus. I have bought the iPad air as I thought it will be the ultimate replacement for my notebook. Bought 100$ third-party styluses just to find out either the stylus or the app or both sucked. I am now back on the paper and pen, and carrying an 11″ MBA around. I’d love a stylus.
Now, seeing that the 12″ MBA is coming out..can I dream a Surface-like flip clamshell-touchscreen MBA with stylus? Please..? I’d buy two, I promise.
You’re forgetting the genius of the Newton, esp. the last Model. It was a device 20 years ahead of it;s time. The handwriting software would adapt to your own writing, converting it to text AS FAST AS YOU COULD SCRIBBLE! After only a couple weeks you could easily have 98% accurate text conversion. THAT was a technology truly useful.
If I recall, Apple had offers but never sold the code for Graffiti software. Perhaps it was waiting for just such a time….
Yes, Steve jobs killed the Newton. But he wasn’t God. History will demonstrate that was a vision Steve didn’t see. Anyone in business needs to write things. And today’s world means electronic form for records, archive, transmission, etc.
What does Apple expect the business person (the worker, not just the owner) to write on? Double-thumb notes all day on the iPhone, even an iPad Mini? Hardly. Been an Apple Fan since ’84. It’s 2015, and electronic writing should be a given.
People who want business friendly devices need to start migrating away from Apple. If you’re not a 17 year old girl, apple has no R+D money for you. Wacth the Microsoft W10 keynote presentation and you’ll see which company REALLY cares about real computing and business. Apple cares about fashion and trendiness above substance.
I hope this is true.
I think the original finger only strategy came out of a lack of accuracy. The software guys did a great job but the resolution of the multi touch touch sensor system is too low for a pixel perfect stylus. Hopefully Apple have developed suitable a method.
Cue Dan Riccio talking about a new way of sensing.
In 2007, the revolutionary new mobile touch UI as introduced by the first iPhone required users to familiarise themselves with touch screens, using various multitouch gestures with their fingers.
Hence Steve Jobs’ clever de-emphasising the use of the stylus at the time. Now that the technology has matured and the “training wheels” have been taken off, it’s time for the introduction of more specialised input for CAD/CAM level interaction with mobile software.
Simples (hiss)…
I think you’re a little wrong here.
Stylus’s came out before multitouch with fingertips.
The world has “been there done that” fail already.
If you want to CAD/CAM then use a stationary computer.
Its only in the movies you see some architect using CAD out in the “field” away from his computer.
Who said styluses came after multitouch? Read again, Whittington…
The only issue I usually come across with styluses is responsiveness. I do digital art with SketchBookPro and use my finger. I have a Wacom tablet(third party application) and don’t use it at all. $50 stylus collecting dust. As stated, it’s not really necessary to have a stylus anyway with any iOS tablet. Typing a lot, use a air keyboard. I do think a stylus is a pretty little addiction to the tablet and also likely mostly useless outside of a few “cool” apps.