FiftyThree has a new hardware competitor: Apple.
At Apple’s big event this morning, the tech giant unveiled a new $99 Apple Pencil that works as a stylus with the company’s new iPad Pro. The device has sensitivity and tilt sensors, so the harder you press, the wider the stroke. It works with apps like Mail, Notes, and Microsoft Office — Apple actually invited Microsoft on stage today for a demo.
The device is quite similar to FiftyThree’s own drawing device, also named Pencil.
Founded four years by a team that includes several veterans of Microsoft, FiftyThree — which employs 28 in Seattle and another 42 in New York City — unveiled its $50 stylus back in November 2013. It offers similar pressure-sensing technology and is meant to be used with the company’s award-winning sketchbook app, Paper, which won Apple’s 2012 iPad App of the Year. Both also feature palm-rejection technology:
The Apple Pencil offers, among other things, palm rejection. Fun. #Appleevent https://t.co/gA4gMRom8e
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) September 9, 2015
We reached out to FiftyThree for a response to Apple’s new product, and it noted how the company is launching an updated version of Paper for the iPhone and iPad on Thursday. Here’s the full statement from FiftyThree:
Every Pencil needs Paper. We’re excited to launch the all-new Paper on iPhone and iPad tomorrow, after which creative thinkers everywhere will see their phones and their ideas in a new light. We believe pen-and-touch input is the foundation for a new type of productivity geared towards creative thinking. Our and Apple’s products open up these tools to even more people, which we support. We at FiftyThree are excited to reveal where we think the next chapter of productivity is headed.
It’s unclear how or if Apple’s Pencil will work with FiftyThree’s Paper app, but the app does already work with other stylus’ or simply your fingers. We’ve followed up with FiftyThree and will update when we hear back. Update: FiftyThree says that Apple’s Pencil will “absolutely” work with Paper.
As far as Apple’s Pencil, the company is also competing with Microsoft, which sells its own stylus for the Surface tablet line. Here’s a tweet that Microsoft sent during Apple’s event today:
Your signature is yours with our 256 levels of sensitivity. Put pen to screen with #Surface. pic.twitter.com/1sfCDIKF8n
— Microsoft Surface (@surface) September 9, 2015
Funny enough, the late Steve Jobs once said that “nobody wants a stylus” at an Apple event introducing the first iPhone. He again harped on the devices in 2010 when talking about iPads.
At Apple, nothing lasts forever…. pic.twitter.com/JCqxgk1HUy
— Dan Gallagher (@djtgallagher) September 9, 2015
