With reggard to pen-based tablets, a friend of mine recently said to me…
“Microsoft has the lead.”
This is surprising since I really haven’t seen much of anything from Microsoft in this area. The Windows 8 developer preview Samsung tab with pen seems pretty basic in terms of its usefulness. And even full reviews that headline focus on pen offerings, drift into features and capabilities that have nothing to do with a stylus. (case-in-point, pun fully intended)
In terms of integrated pen support, I take every chance I get to use a non-iOS tablet. And I encounter a fair number in my travels and at conferences. I recently used the Lenovo tab with its “integrated” stylus at a conference in Barbados. The experience was awful. And what I mean by “awful” is absolutely crappy. Sensitivity was inconsistent. Taps and selections with the stylus were hit or miss. At times, the device wouldn’t even respond to the pen. Android – swing and a miss.
In terms of business productivity – arguably the dimension that Microsoft will attempt to address with its pen-supported tablets – one must ask; Will a pen matter? My hunch is that any requirement to use a stylus or any inference that a tight integration between pen and tablet may actually provide some discrete business benefit, will be a hollow promise, perhaps even a distraction designed to keep tablet designers out of gesture-based patent infringement hot water.
A more reasonable bet (for business productivity) is on gestures and screen resolutions that allow the human/capacitive model to function at high zoom levels. But don’t misunderstand me – I use a stylus from time-to-time – specifically this one – especially when I’m drawing on Paper.
Indeed, non-capacitive pen-based interfaces should be better than capacitive touch displays, but the reality [so far] is that they’re not.
I think Steve was right -
“If you see a stylus, they blew it.”
“If you see a stylus, they blew it.”
I love my iPad, but I disagree w/ that comment w/ no respect to Jobs.
More & more I use the iPad for activities I’d normally do on a laptop: the iPad is just so compact & convenient. My wife laughs ’cause I seldom put it down.
I am a const. superintendent, & I see the value of the iPad there as well & am constantly showing my co-workers how handy it is in the field & office.
BUT, like most men, my fingers are too big to deftly touch a small icon….so the stylus is necessary. I shopped around ’til I found one that suits me, & never walk off w/ the iPad w/o it.
My wife is a interior architect/designer, & she uses a different set of styli for drawing…w/ some outstanding results.
Her clients are awed when she sketches over photos, rendering in possible design elements.
The stylus is not a sign of failure.
Eric,
I understand your position on the stylus, and like you and your wife, my wife and I both use styli with our iPads and on occasion even with iPhone. They work swimmingly well and for certain tasks they are almost necessary for the reasons you cite.
But here’s a more comprehensive view of Steve’s comment. In a way, his terse and seemingly stubborn position is taken out of context. For those that had the benefit of hearing it in context, Steve was very specific in his characterization of a product that came with an integrated stylus.
In his view, a product with an integrated stylus is a problem. He was not referring to a product that can take input from externally developed styli which mimic capacitive touch. Which means – “If you see a stylus, they blew it.” is a materially different position from “Styli are fundamentally bad.”.
I don’t think Jobs ever said styli are bad or styli shouldn’t be used with iOS devices.
I suspect his concerns of an integrated stylus were based on the same reasons I think they’re bad. They are dependent devices – really two devices intended to act as one. Integration complexities, therefore are magnified, and many other dependencies begin to put the design down a rabbit hole.
I stand corrected; like most folks, I only knew the comment out-of-context.
I totally agree w/ your explaination; I never liked PDAs that required an integrated stylus.
I find that I use my stylus in one hand for precise motions on the iPad, & my free hand for others.
Interesting how quickly we adapt to the idiosyncrasies of devices, gaining performance in doing so.
—eric
I use lots of quotes like this and I rarely learn the backstory – who has the time to know everything? ;-)
But I’ve come to understand that Jobs, seemingly more than anyone, was often misunderstood because he would say things that on face value, seemed pretty off-base. And it’s not surprising – he did that a lot in his younger years.
But certainly – if any mobile device requires other independent parts to work well, it’s a red flag. Ideally, optional stuff is indeed “optional” in every sense of the term. I have many “optional” features for iOS and only a few might be considered things that Apple may eventually integrate, but none actually lessen the possibilities of the device materially.