Comment by phaus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by phaus | Hacker News Reader

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>As soon as you have a stylus, you are dead.

This might have been correct at the time Steve Jobs made the statement, but Apple really needs to reconsider.

Apple has always claimed to make devices for "creative" people, yet pretty much every artist on the planet wants Apple to release an iPad with a built in digitizer. Any student that knows what a digitizer is will also be likely to want one.

There is a huge market right now for stylii for the iPad, yet every single one of them is absolutely terrible. There are even a few third-party attempts at a adding a digitizer, and they are just as bad or worse.

Samsung's Note phones and tablets have been selling very well in spite of the fact that the digitizer's are often slow and buggy due to poor application support. If a company like Apple decided to give such a product their full attention, they could make something truly amazing. Perhaps they could even write their own pressure-sensitive compatible drawing/painting/note-taking programs to accompany the addition of the technology.

Sadly, there isn't any indication that they are interested in doing this. Instead, they are developing televisions that most people won't be able to afford and smart-watches.

> Apple has always claimed to make devices for "creative" people, yet pretty much every artist on the planet wants Apple to release an iPad with a built in digitizer.

Apple only really claimed this back when they (barely) subsisted primarily off of the creative market. Once Jobs came back the focus turned to the wider consumer audience which I think was a big reason why they started cranking out so many hits. They became successful, I would argue, because they largely ignored the demands of the power users.

The difference would be that the iOS interface is built for touch, even if drawing apps would support a stylus.

Microsoft didn't even build their interface for a stylus. It was built for a mouse, and the stylus was a crutch for making it work on a tablet.

But using a mouse based interface with a stylus is really suboptimal. I had a Wacom digitizer for drawing, but I would switch to using the mouse as soon as I needed to interact with the interface, because it was so awkward.

I agree, but I wasn't suggesting that they abandon the touch screen, just that they develop a version of the iPad with a digitizer for people who like to draw/take notes. These people number in the tens, if not hundreds of millions, so clearly there's a market for it.

The iPad was created as a content consumption device, but the popularity of productivity apps seems to indicate that quite a few people are trying to use them as laptop replacements. My laptop weighs just under 10lbs (I like games) so it's helpful to have something that gets me 80% of the functionality of an ultrabook when I don't feel like lugging it around.

I myself have two cases, a normal protective case for when I want to read / watch movies / play games, and a Clamcase Pro, which basically turns the iPad into a macbook air clone with a mobile OS. The keyboard is as nice as a real Apple product, and I can type about 90 WPM on it without any problems. I've written dozens of term papers and even a bit of code on it. I just wish I could also use my iPad for drawing/design without it being an absolutely horrible experience.

These people number in the tens, if not hundreds of millions, so clearly there's a market for it.

It'd be like a Cintiq, but actually affordable. That, and you can move and rotate an iPad around almost like a sheet of paper while drawing.

I was genuinely disappointed when I realized that the iPad had zero support for this. It seemed like quite the oversight.

As long as it's an optional accessory, I'm all for it. There for the artists and designers who need it, but not something that would affect how you use the OS itself.

I think the problem at the moment is mostly technological. I think if there was a cheap, high-resolution digitizer they'd probably do it. What people may not realise at the moment is just how crappy the touchscreen is on the iPhone/iPad in many respects -- it's something that only becomes apparent when you try using a stylus. I'm sure it's just a matter of time until it becomes better, though I imagine it'd still be thirty parties selling the styluses themselves.

Certainly, current tablets are still too slow in keeping up with a stylus but I'm sure Apple would love to have their own stylus in the market considering they already have 3rd party accessories. The iPad's smart cover is very popular as is.

Yes, I'd say it would be a no-brainer for Apple to add an active digitizer and a pen at this point, considering how many artists are craving for it at this point. They don't even have to bundle the pen to increase the price for everyone, just the digitizer. I'm still hoping Google would do the same at some point with one of their Nexus 10"+ tablets (along with a 3:2 ratio resolution).

Why ask Apple to make such device? They make devices that appeal to a broad spectrum of consumers.

Why not ask a company like Wacom to make such a device specifically geared towards "creative" people?

Wacom is actually working on a art-focused tablet that's supposedly going to be announced or delivered over the next few months. That being said, I doubt their ability to deliver something as smooth and stable as an iPad.

I like android just fine, but the Note series of devices seem to lag and glitch a bit when using the stylus. I have more confidence in Apple's ability to refine the technology. I also happen to like my current iPad more than any other mobile device I've used.

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