Why is Samsung the only one still using stylus when there were so many of them on the street?

When it comes to mobile phone styluses, I believe the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is Samsung's flagship Galaxy Note series. This series opened the era of large-screen Android mobile phones and has always been firmly established as the "Android King" in people's hearts. Samsung's proud S Pen, which is full of black technology, has contributed greatly to this.

In addition, there are almost no mobile phones with stylus on the market. Looking back, my first mobile phone was the first-generation arcade Nokia 5800XM, which also came with a stylus. Many mobile phones had it at that time.

From the perspective of usage habits, the design of the stylus is actually more in line with our daily writing habits, and it is much more convenient to use for writing and drawing than fingers. But why are mobile phone styluses so rare nowadays, and only Samsung is using it?

Hello capacitive screen Byebye stylus

In fact, the reason why stylus was eliminated by most manufacturers is largely due to the popularity of capacitive screens. With the launch of iPhone equipped with capacitive screens with multi-touch function, the backward single-touch resistive screens have been eliminated from the stage of history.

In the past, touch-screen phones were equipped with styluses because they used a resistive screen design. The touch effect was achieved by applying pressure to the coordinate data generated by the resistive film. The accuracy and operating comfort were far inferior to the capacitive screens commonly used nowadays. Capacitive screens can be operated without pressing, so nowadays, mobile phones with capacitive screens do not need to be equipped with styluses separately. Operations can be completed by touching with a finger.

In addition to the technological backwardness of resistive screens, the stylus may not be so suitable for mobile devices from the beginning, especially for mobile phones. If a stylus is used for operation and input, users must use both hands to operate, which adds inconvenience in daily use.

Moreover, handwriting input is actually far slower than the input speed of a virtual full keyboard or a nine-square grid. After all, the stylus technology is still a long way from the real writing feel, mainly because there is a certain delay.

Nowadays, the development trend of mobile phones is that the screen is getting bigger and bigger, while the body is getting thinner and thinner. It is undoubtedly very luxurious to add a stylus in the internal space of a mobile phone where every inch of space is valuable. Moreover, it needs to be opened, which will affect the appearance of the mobile phone. For waterproof mobile phones, the design difficulty will become even greater.

For something as small as a stylus, the risk of losing it is also very high.

In addition, many users who really need a stylus can buy stylus products from third-party accessory vendors, which are more expandable and playable. Therefore, mobile phone manufacturers don't have to waste their efforts.

Can’t escape the fate of the minority

In fact, if you think about it carefully, the stylus has many other uses besides input. For example, drawing. Your fingers are too thick to draw on a mobile phone. I have seen many masters on the Internet draw amazing paintings on the Samsung Galaxy Note series. However, there are very few people who can draw, and those who can draw and use mobile phones to draw are almost a drop in the bucket.

Some business people and people who love learning may use a stylus to annotate documents or books, which is indeed much more convenient than using fingers.

In addition, young people may be able to type quickly on a touch screen with their fingers, but many older people or the elderly do not know pinyin at all, and some may have forgotten it long ago. Therefore, a stylus pen is faster to input, and handwriting input is much more convenient than Wubi input.

But these groups combined are only a handful. For ordinary mobile phone manufacturers, the right way is to cater to mass consumers to gain more sales. This is why there are fewer and fewer models with stylus pens.

Samsung is the only company that stands out, and its technological barriers are hard to break

To make a stylus comparable to the S Pen is obviously much more technically than the "small plastic toothpick" of the resistive screen. Currently, professional styluses basically use electromagnetic pen technology, and can achieve fine pressure detection that fingers cannot achieve.

Samsung obviously has profound technical accumulation in this area. If other manufacturers want to do it, they will definitely not be able to do it without a certain technical foundation. If they start from scratch, it may be too late. No one can say what the shape of mobile phones will be in two years.

Of course, there is another way to realize these technologies, which is to purchase patents. In fact, the S-Pen of Samsung Note series and the stylus on Microsoft Surface tablet also use passive electromagnetic pen technology from the well-known digital tablet manufacturer Wacom, but manufacturers not only have to pay patent licensing fees for this, but also have to add special electromagnetic induction to the equipment, which greatly increases the production cost.

Therefore, as the stylus becomes more and more niche, launching a mobile phone with an electromagnetic pen function is often a thankless task. Moreover, Samsung has formed its own brand tone in this regard. Only Samsung can make the stylus so sexy and charming. Unless you have better technology than the S Pen, you should think twice before making a move.

Conclusion

Although the stylus is not popular in the mobile phone industry, it is very popular in the tablet computer industry, which uses productivity as a selling point. For example, the stylus configured in Apple's iPad Pro and Microsoft's Surface tablet has indeed won a lot of applause and increased people's desire to buy.

Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west. I always feel that the stylus will one day reappear in the public's vision in a more beautiful posture. What do you think?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.