It’s unclear why Apple decided to jump into yet another Tablet category, but there’s a big chance co-founder Steve Jobs would’ve scrapped the project if he was still alive. Here’s why: the new iPad Pro Apple introduced yesterday, with a giant 12,9 inches screen, comes with a stylus. That’s the one thing Steve Jobs said no one needed. “Who wants a stylus? Nobody,” he said back in 2007, while introducing the all-touch original iPhone.
Enter the Apple Pencil, a sleek, white stylus with “virtually no lag” and 12 hours of battery life that can be recharged using a built-in Lightening connector.
It makes sense if you consider the iPad Pro is meant for advanced users (say, architects, graphic designers), but it is an unlikely turn for Apple. Neil Shah, analyst with research firm Counterpoint Technology, thinks the Pencil is a no brainer. "For enterprise grade apps, finger baded interaction has limited use-cases but either a high precision device such as mouse or stylus makes much more sense," he tells Blasting News. Still, a lotof users are highlighting the similarities with Samsung’s S Pen, which has been out for years.
On that note, the smart keyboard cover that will also accessorise the new tablet – the biggest iOS device Apple has ever launched – is painfully similar to the one Microsoft introduced years ago with its Surface tablet.Sales of this particular category have been falling steadily for the past six quarters, so Apple is hoping to revive it with a super-sized model.
On the hardware side, it boasts a 64-bit A9X processor, 2732x2048 resolution at 264 ppi, 8 megapixels iSight camera and 1080p recording; 1.2 megapixels FaceTime camera (frontal) and Touch ID.
The iPad Pro and its two accessories will ship November, and Apple has shared pricing solely for the U.S. market – $799 for the iPad, $99 for the Pencil and $169 for the keyboard cover. Whether it will succeed or not is unclear, but one thing is certain: the market was not impressed. Apple’s stock took a dive after the presentation, closing at $110.15 (-1.92%).
