Bloomberg is reporting that Apple’s next big product will be a tablet with a stylus something Mac artists have been salivating over for many years. They point to a number of factors, one being the success of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 as well as Samsung’s stylus pen line such as the Note 2, Note 4 Note 10.1 as well as the Note Pro 12.
Samsung debuted its first, much maligned and hugely successful Galaxy Note — the first phone with a bigger-than-5-inch screen — in September, 2011. For two years afterwards, Apple was content to present incremental improvements to the iPhone. Compared with the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5s just added a fingerprint sensor and an improved camera (plus a few other features that most consumers didn’t care about).
Meanwhile Apple carefully observed the “phablet” market, watched other handset makers follow Samsung’s example and erode its market share, and experimented with ways to make a big phone easier to navigate one-handed. It struck just when Samsung started posting lower profits, because of the increased competitive pressure.
This time it isn’t a Samsung product Apple is watching, but Microsoft’s Surface Pro.
Another article from back in January over at Business Week states that Apple has filed for patents using a stylus in conjunction with a tablet. Interesting!
I think it would be in Apple’s best interest to create a product like this considering their biggest announcement this season was a higher resolution screen and some thinner iPads. Bleh. An Apple tablet with a stylus would blow the doors off of the Mac line and it’s likely set everyone into a fever pitch about styluses something us artists would love to see happen. What do you think? Would you like to see Apple finally come out with a Tablet?
