Technology Keeps Trying To Kill The Pen, But Fails Every Time.
September 28, 2021On January 9th, 2007 Apple turned the tech world on its head. It was on that day that its CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone at Macworld with these famous words, “It’s an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator” .Contrary to popular belief, smartphone technology predates Cupertino’s invention. The
first smartphone was IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator (1992).
What the iPhone did was simplify the user experience. Prior to its introduction, PDAs like the HP iPAQ ruled the roost. They were heavy devices with unimaginative aesthetics. Usually coloured in beige, they ran on Windows Mobile OS and could practically do what modern smartphones could, save for downloading apps from a cloud store.
The user interface was complicated and derivative, similar to the perceived experience of using Windows XP or Windows 98 on a PC. And to successfully use the UI you needed to a stylus. It was an essential tool to select what you wanted on the screen. It was also cumbersome to use – which is why Apple chose to do away with it.
Steve Jobs communicated his distaste for them during the iPhone’s launch by saying, “Who wants a stylus? You have to get ’em and put ’em away and you lose ’em, yuck!” These famous words made us rethink the need for such a tool. The iPhone’s multi-touch UI, error recognition and several other features made the index finger the de facto selection tool.
Within a few years, all major smartphone makers transitioned away from the stylus. It was considered an outmoded way of selecting something on screen. The index finger is far more efficient. It’s just as precise and you won’t have to worry about misplacing it.
Multi-touch support expanded on this functionality with gestures. You could pinch to zoom or twist to rotate. This was something that the stylus could not do. However in 2011, Samsung reintroduced the stylus with the first Galaxy Note. Though the phone didn’t need one, the precision that it offered was undeniable.
The stylus or S-Pen as we have come to call it, is used where accuracy is needed to achieve a goal. Highlighting text, taking notes, circling parts of a mock up or signing your name, these tasks can’t be properly accomplished by something as blunt as your index finger. The advent of tablets like the iPad made the case for stylus/pen ever stronger.
Apple itself couldn’t deny this, which is why it eventually introduced the Apple Pencil for the iPad Pros and Mini. Samsung has done the same with its Tab S7+, S7 and cheaper Tab S6 Lite. Users have the option of using their index fingers for relevant tasks, but when circumstance dictates the necessity of a pen, that option is available too.
As time progresses, we are likely to see even more devices incorporating pen support. The recently launched Galaxy Fold3 is a prime example of this. Users have the flexibility of using a pen on their foldable screens, which was something unheard of till 2021.
As technology advanced in recent years, said pens gained the ability to mimic the texture of actual pens and the brush strokes exhibited by their physical counterparts. As such, artists can now use them to achieve the same results on a modern tablet as that of a clean sheet of paper.
The modern pencil was invented in 1795 by Nicholas-Jacques conte. And despite how far we’ve come as a civilization in terms of computers, medicine and space exploration, the pencil/pen has yet to be replaced. Its influence in inspiring creativity or putting thought to paper is undeniable.
Technology has threatened to kill the pen numerous times in our lifetime, however each attempt only fortified its importance in our daily lives. We will continue to see this pattern with new inventions. Ideas seem to come alive quickly when there’s a pen/pencil in hand, which is how things will probably remain for the foreseeable future.
