Macworld

Apple founder Steve Jobs wasn’t a big fan of the stylus. “Who wants a stylus?” he asked at the original iPhone launch in 2007. “You have to get ’em and put ’em away, you lose ’em, yuck.” Nobody wants a stylus.” Instead, the iPhone’s interface was built around what he referred to as the best pointing device in the world: the human finger. This was a risk at the time, but the iPhone ended up doing reasonably well.

That’s not to say that Jobs’ view on the matter was definitive. Look up a YouTube clip of the stylus monologue–as I just did, to get the wording right–and you’re sure to see plenty of commenters gleefully pointing out Apple’s later change of direction. In 2015, a different CEO named Tim announced the launch of the Apple Pencil, a stylus. What an embarrassing U-turn, those commenters would have you believe. Although it’s worth bearing in mind that the Apple Pencil was designed for the iPad, not the iPhone, and to this day the company has resisted the urge to make a smartphone that can be controlled using a stylus.

That may yet change. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, the Bloomberg leaker Mark Gurman insists “with zero doubt” that Apple has prototyped and internally tested a special version of the Apple Pencil for its upcoming foldable iPhone. This stylus may or may not materialize when the phone is unveiled next week; at this point, Gurman considers it unlikely. But Apple evidently gave it serious consideration.

It’s nice to have the whiff of a last-minute surprise going into the September 9 event. But on balance, I hope this ends up being one of the thousand noes rather than the one yes. I think launching the iPhone Ultra as a stylus-based (or even a stylus-optional) device would be a colossal mistake. Here are six reasons why.

1. Phone styluses are annoying

It’s been 19 years since he made them, but Steve Jobs’ objections to the stylus remain valid. They’re annoying, fiddly objects, inconvenient to get out, and easy to lose. It’s an extra thing to worry about when the revolutionary joy of the 2007 iPhone was the way it unified all your tech into a single point of use. You no longer needed to carry a digital camera, an iPod, and a cellphone. Gratuitous accessories like the stylus are a regression to the bad old days.

On a larger, more work-focused device like the iPad Pro, such annoyances can be viewed as an acceptable compromise. iPads often live in a bag, and bags have side pockets for things like the Apple Pencil. If you set up your iPad for a longer work session, it’s less of a hassle, but iPhones are instant-use devices, and they don’t need random gizmos adding friction to the process.

2. Where do you store it, and how do you charge it?

One of the biggest problems with the original Apple Pencil, and one of the biggest improvements made by the 2nd-gen model in 2018, relates to storage and charging. Later versions attach magnetically to the side of an iPad and charge wirelessly, which means a) it’s always there, and b) it’s always charged when you need it. Before then, Apple Pencils were generally found at the bottom of a bag, if you could find them at all, and it was a 50/50 bet whether they would have any power. (Charging via Lightning was a design nightmare, too, but that’s another story.)

Gurman says the prototype Pencil uses a magnetic connection, but acknowledges that this isn’t ideal. “Storing the Pencil would get awkward if you want to fold the phone open and not use the accessory,” he says. I also suspect that a magnetically attached stylus will detach from the phone when in a pocket, or while being taken out of a pocket, likely resulting in one or both ending up on the floor. It doesn’t feel like a satisfactory solution, but if you don’t use magnets, you’re left with the inconvenience of the 1st-gen Pencil, or the dust-gathering inelegance of a stylus that slots into a hole. Yuck.

Magnetically attaching the Apple Pencil makes sense for a tablet, but wouldn’t suit a phone.

Apple

3. Phones don’t benefit from styluses as much as tablets

The creative-targeted 2015 iPad Pro clearly benefited from the potential of a stylus, since the human finger, as even the proudest of parents will surely concede, will never rival a pen tip for artistic accuracy. But phones, and particularly iPhones, are rarely used for art, partly because their screens are smaller, and partly through habit: There’s no Apple Pencil support for the iPhone, so both users and app developers have adapted to an environment in which fingers do the work.

Are iPhone Ultra owners going to gain delightful utility from the Apple Pencil mini? I doubt it. The software isn’t there to take advantage of it, and smartphones in general don’t suit stylus input.

4. A stylus would add technical challenges Apple really doesn’t need

Considering how much money Apple is likely to ask for it (at least $2,000, and perhaps as much as $2,499), the iPhone Ultra needs to be perfect. Any hint of an Antennagate or Bendgate scenario would kill interest in an ultra-premium device, and bring a premature end to what should be a long line of foldable iPhones.

The folding screen already creates plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong (two words: crease and hinge). But as Gurman points out, making that screen stylus-sensitive ramps the difficulty level up another notch. “The sensitive nature of foldable displays means that a stylus-like input device could leave unsightly marks on the delicate screen,” he explains. Look out for #Unsightlymarksgate, coming to an excitable media outlet near you.

5. Too many novelties at once

In the Android world, the concept of the foldable is (relatively) old hat, but for Apple fans, the iPhone Ultra is going to be a lot to take in stride. Barring a few minor novelties such as the Dynamic Island, iPhones have been used in exactly the same way for almost two decades. A lot of us are going to have to update our muscle memory for an entirely new experience.

In that context, it strikes me as the height of recklessness (not to mention arrogance) to throw in an entirely new input method at the same time. Apple doesn’t need an extra usability roadbump. Not this year.

This is a lot to take in.

Foundry

6. It would be an embarrassing U-turn

“If you see a stylus, they blew it.” Those were Steve Jobs’ words. And that resulted in plenty of schadenfreude when the Apple Pencil was announced a few years later.

I’ve repeatedly defended the decision to make a stylus for the iPad, which was a different use case. But making one for the iPhone really would play into the hands of the haters. Apple should stick to its guns. And its fingers.