Is a stylus hopelessly niche?

Posted by DLutz8 on July 6, 2012 08:54 am 17

Looking at the plethora of modern tablets, I feel rather outcast - people are debating whether to buy the new iPad or the Google Nexus 7 or some Transformer tab, and I just sit there, knowing there's nothing but vaporware to meet my needs.

Case in point, I can't imagine myself using any tablet without a pressure-sensitive stylus. As a journalist and hobbyist, but dedicated, artist, I NEED-NEED-NEED the pen, and not just some clunky squiggly rubber-tipped capacitive stylus, but a full-formed tool.

But, there's nothing like that on the market. I tried what came close to it - the abysmal HTC Flyer, with the laggy N-trig system, the Samsung Slate 7, that is essentially a keyboardless laptop, heavy and not really portable and with a poor battery life... and that's all? I also own a Galaxy Note, which has the wacom tech under it's hood, and it's GREAT - but it's not really a tablet, the screen is too small for serious note-taking or drawing.

Point is, that the Wacom tech seems to be more or less easily implemented in tablets coming from the experience with Note and slates on Win 7, and that the company doesn't have that much qualms collaborating with tablet vendors, so why is every single tablet rolling out on the market, a pure media consumption device? Why is the stylus, when rarely seen, implemented on big and heavy enterprise-class machines, like even the upcoming Samsung 5 Hybrid PC, and not on something that's actually "mobile"? Is it that such a niche product, so little people needing it and the costs of adding this functionality too high?

I've always personally felt that without this input option, a tablet is "stunted", that it doesn't let you create anything. But apparently, for the mass consumer it ain't so, hence why there's dozens of virtually same slates on the market, and barely anything with a stylus. Oh sure, there's the Galaxy Note 10.1, who's release date is STILL unknown, and the mysterious "digital ink" on Microsoft Surface, but these products seem months away from any kind of production or commercial release.

Am I the only one that feels neglected by vendors that refuse to give an input choice? Like a real, working input choice, and not "buy this crappy capacitive stylus and enjoy the squiggles" option that many do have?