"Limited stock". Translation - we know demand is not high, so we don't want to have abundant stock on shelf and look like no body wants it.
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More Apple Stores Begin Receiving Very Limited Stock of Apple Pencil
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Um, take a look a the threads of people looking for Pencils. Lack of demand is definitely not the problem.
Someone bought one from Century City an hour ago.
https://forums.macrumors.com/search/1087048/?q=Century&t=post&o=date&c[thread]=1937577
Just got back from Century City! There were 4 left! They were so surprised when I walked up to them ready to purchase! If you head there now I think you can still snatch one! I was tempted to buy 2 but decided to do the nice thing and leave it for others
I've just stumped up for 50 of these and got them home and putting them on eBay later.
I do agree that the Pencil and Keyboard should be in abundance. It is debatable if it should or should not have been included in the box. But I doubt the inventory issues are due to people buying too many. My guess is that they are likely dealing with two entirely different suppliers for Pencil and Keyboard (possibly three if you split the two accessories up) and iPad. Such that iPad was in abundance on a different timeline than the accessories. And in their zeal to get it into the hands of eager first adopters they probably didn't consider the potential PR backlash that a shortage of accessories for even one week would pose.
The fact stores are receiving inventory just 24 hours before the broader retail release of both the iPad and its accessories is clearly inline with the two supply chains converging with respect to production and resources.
Call the Kenwood Store in Cincinnati and ask for manager. He said they were sold out. Now it looks like I may have to go by and check myself from what other poster said.
The pencil is indeed not capacitive but rather active. The tracking technology is magnetic resonance for position and orientation of the pencil, while the tip has a pressure sensor that tracks force emitted. I am taking a guess here but I believe that both the tracking/orientation and pressure data are communicated via Bluetooth 4.0LE (low energy profile).
You could consider it a hybrid of Wacom tech. Much like the Surface Pro 3 and 4's pen, though the Apple Pencil is far, far more accurate.
Conversely the surface pro 4 pen has a cool eraser.
EDIT: Also of note is your comment about nib size on capacitive styli. In a passive capacitive styli you are correct, however the nib can be any size in an active styli (even for use in a standard capacitive touch screen). This is due to the fact the nib in active styli emit their own electrical charge similar to that of your skin touching the surface of the display. This however has a draw back regarding pinpoint precision as the field resolved is usually that of a finger tip in diameter, vs the tip of a pen or pencil. So the point you make contact with may not be the actual registered center of the active field on the capacitive display. Companies like Adonit and Wacom have made active capacitive styli for the iPad which also use proprietary APIs to adjust relative position with actual position depending on handedness of the user (this must be manually configured by the user in the settings of the Pen API and is entirely application specific).
Ultimately the Apple Pencil is more elegant due to it's consideration of multiple data points (position in 2D, another dimension for pressure, and orientation (angle), which make the pencil accurate in right or left hands irrespective of writing style.
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The pencil is indeed not capacitive but rather active. The tracking technology is magnetic resonance for position and orientation of the pencil, while the tip has a pressure sensor that tracks force emitted. I am taking a guess here but I believe that both the tracking/orientation and pressure data are communicated via Bluetooth 4.0LE (low energy profile).
You could consider it a hybrid of Wacom tech. Much like the Surface Pro 3 and 4's pen, though the Apple Pencil is far, far more accurate.
Conversely the surface pro 4 pen has a cool eraser.
That sounds about right. You barely have to even touch the screen with the Pencil for the Pro to interpret commands. It's a little uncanny. The latency could use a bit of work, but it's far better than anything else I've used in this space.
But yes, just using it for a minute will tell you there's absolutely no way it would work with any other Apple device. It doesn't work anything like a regular stylus.
Just picked one up at Apple Del Monte, in Monterey, Ca. No keyboards, pencils still in the back store room, so ask.
Not at all. It makes zero business sense for Apple to not make an accessory that adds to the value of a device available along side it. Trust they want to sell as many of these as quickly as they can. Clearly if people are willing to pay 500 dollars on Ebay for one then 99 bucks isn't exactly hitting the (I'll pass on it) margin. This was a simple logistics and launch screw up. If the inventory shores up within the next few days this will be old news.
I'm really surprised that Apple didn't make the Apple Pencil magnetic so that it sticks to the side of the iPad pro.
None of this makes sense to me. I ordered my iPad pro at 4:15 the morning it became available. How can they have run out so quickly? Did Apple even consider this item would sell? The pen is the only reason I ordered the iPad pro!
I am considering returning it if I do not get it. And getting a surface 4. Please Apple please I would not want to get the surface.
Yesterday I call apple sales and checked to see if my order would be delivered as my order states. He could not confirm anything, only that my order is pending.
NOTHING IS MAKING SENSE!
I am considering returning it if I do not get it. And getting a surface 4. Please Apple please I would not want to get the surface.
Yesterday I call apple sales and checked to see if my order would be delivered as my order states. He could not confirm anything, only that my order is pending.
NOTHING IS MAKING SENSE!
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What a joke, the pencil should have been included with the iPad Pro. Out of the box, the it's only a jumbo iPad...
The Surface is a much more usable product ... at least you can run a full version of Photoshop.
What, the same device you're constantly sliding in and out of a stand or case, picking up, rotating etc? Yeah, can see why they didn't actually.
