Apple's Smaller iPad Pro Launching Next Month Likely to Support Apple Pencil, the Best Digital Pen(cil) on the Market Today
The original rumor targeting Apple's next product launch pointed to it being on March 15. Since then the launch date has changed along with several product details. Re/code reported today that the actual launch date will likely be sometime during the week of March 21 and not March 15; the new 4" iPhone will reportedly be branded the iPhone SE and not the "iPhone 5se"; and Apple will introduce a new 9.7" iPad Pro and not the iPad Air 3.
If Apple does indeed drop the 'iPad Air' branding to that of the 'iPad Pro,' then it stands to reason that the new iPad will likely support their new display which in turn supports working with Apple Pencil. This will allow more Apple customers to experience the Apple Pencil for taking handwritten notes, for doodling and/or for professional work. It's ideal for students in the classroom, lawyers in a courtroom or doctors and sales people for filing in forms and/or taking notes.
A little over a year ago, and months before Apple actually introduced the iPad Pro and their Apple Pencil accessory, Patently Apple covered one of Apple's smartpen inventions in a report titled "Apple Invents a Superheterodyne Pen Stimulus Receiver to Overcome the Classic Stylus Latency Problem." Today, Apple's marketing for the Apple Pencil states that "The lightning-fast responsiveness of Apple Pencil separates it from other creative tools. That's because its latency — the tiny delay between when you begin drawing and the time it appears on the screen — has been reduced to an almost imperceptible level." I've been wondering for months now if Apple had really delivered on this promise of no lag.
Apple delayed the shipment of the iPad Pro closer to Christmas, and when it arrived, not all stores had the Apple Pencil. So when I went to check it out last year I was unable to. Today I visited Best Buy to check out the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone and Apple's iPad Pro. I was checking out the Samsung Note because of a feature that I discovered in a new Samsung patent application. I wanted to know if the patent was ahead of the product or the other way around.
While talking to the Samsung rep about the Samsung pen, the rep said he wished that Apple would make a Note-Like product that worked with their new Apple Pencil. He said Apple's pencil was simply superior. When I asked him why he thought that the Apple Pencil was so superior, he said straight out, because it virtually has no lag.
I was taken aback by his enthusiasm for the Apple Pencil and we joked about traditional digital pens that irritably lag, especially the one from Microsoft. I then zipped over to the Apple Store within Best Buy to try out the new Apple Pencil and was absolutely blown away. No lag. Did I say – no lag? Wow, for a doodler/note taker like myself, it was love at first doodle. Then the Apple rep showed me an app that would convert my handwritten notes to digital instantly. Finally a way to doodle, take notes and be able to save them for future reports.
At the end of the day, Apple is likely to introduce a new iPad Pro model in the 9.7" range next month allowing more Apple customers to experience the Apple Pencil. If you happen to be a doodler like myself, then you're going to absolutely love getting your hands on Apple's next-gen iPad Pro. In the meantime, check out the Apple Pencil with virtually no lag at an Apple Store near you. You'll be amazed at Apple's killer Pencil that puts those from Microsoft and Samsung to shame. While Apple was late to the party in offering a digital pencil for the iPad, they proved that waiting to deliver a product that 'just works' right was definitely worth the wait.
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