KGI: Apple likely to launch simple stylus to enhance upcoming 12.9-inch iPad user experience
Previous Comments — Stylus, eh? — Well... I guess people will probably quote Jobs' opinion about the merits of a stylus (he was against it). — But a few thoughts:
Context & Ripple Effects
This January 2015 note from analyst firm KGI is the opening data point in a year-long run-up to Apple's largest iPad yet: it flags a simple stylus as a companion to the rumored 12.9-inch tablet. By August, KGI had sharpened the call into an optional Force Touch-compatible stylus with shipment expectations in the millions, while separate sourcing tied the same pressure-sensing tech to the iPhone 6S.
The significance sits in the reversal: Steve Jobs famously opposed styluses on iOS, and The Verge's September piece on why Apple built the stylus Jobs hated framed the launch as a deliberate break from that doctrine. Eight years on, the line proved durable enough that Apple shipped an $79 USB-C-charging Apple Pencil compatible with every USB-C iPad — a mass-market accessory, not a niche pro add-on.
First-order effects
- Apple's accessory lineup gains a new input device sold alongside the 12.9-inch iPad, positioning the big tablet for drawing, annotation, and productivity use rather than pure media consumption.
Second-order effects
- Force Touch becomes a shared platform across iPhone, Watch, MacBook, and now the iPad stylus, giving developers one pressure-input API to target instead of device-specific ones — and giving Apple a hardware differentiator rivals must match in the large-tablet segment.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the stylus stops being an admission of failure and becomes a permanent product tier: precision input normalized first on the pro iPad, then pushed downmarket through cheaper models like the eventual $79 USB-C Pencil, eroding the finger-only orthodoxy Jobs set.
The trend: The iPad is evolving from a touch-first consumption device into a productivity platform where precision input like the Apple Pencil ships as a standard companion rather than an afterthought.