Why Apple will offer a stylus for the iPad Pro
Why Apple will offer a stylus for the iPad Pro
There is quite a bit of hand-wringing over rumors that the likely iPad Pro will feature some type of active stylus — as if it would be a betrayal of Jobs’ “let them use fingers” legacy. The reality is that the iPad has already moved miles past the original 2007 iPhone, and a 12-inch “iPad Pro” would take Apple’s mobile offerings even further into new territory. A real analysis of likely users make it very clear that an active stylus will be a must-have — at least as an option — for a successful iPad Pro.
Creative professionals love Apple and they love pens
Content creators are one of Apple’s strongest market segments. Macs, iPads, and iPhones dominate design studios nearly everywhere. Alongside those Macs, at least among those who create art, or edit photographs, is almost always a tablet. Wacom has made a large market out of supplying tablets of every possible size, price, and feature set to those who create on Macs (and Windows). So far, so good. But if Apple is planning to sell those same creative professionals an iPad Pro for their on-the-go work, it is going to need to provide them with a replacement for the tablet they use with their Mac. Sure, there are a number of products that graft a smart stylus onto the iPad — most notably Adobe’s own Ink productwe reviewed last year — but none compare with the accuracy and capability of a true active stylus that gets help from the device itself.
Microsoft is on top of this trend, for once
It isn’t often that Adobe showcases a new capability first on Windows, but it is promoting its new Touch Workspaces as a way for designers to make better use of touch and pen input within Photoshop and Illustrator — on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3. While initial coverage of the stylus on the Surface Pro 3 focused on whether its handwriting capability would be valuable, there is no question that the active stylus is useful for creatives. I’m sure that is not lost on Apple, which is used to being in the catbird seat when it comes to Adobe products.
Adding full touch and ink support to the Mac would be a large effort, so the simpler task of designing an active pen controller into the iPad Pro seems like a logical place to start.
Will Apple use Wacom, N-trig, or its own technology?
Wacom is not the only game in town when it comes to active stylus technology. N-trig offers a different solution that can allow for thinner screens — meaning less parallax — and lower-cost designs. However, Apple has been busy with its own stylus R&D, so, as it does in so many areas, Apple may go its own way. Whichever it chooses, a 12+-inch “Pro” model of the iPad is going to need to address the need of creative professionals for state-of-the-art pen input.
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