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Apple Pencil

This product is the Apple Pencil, made by Apple.

The Apple Pencil is a piece of technology that I have been very interested in. The target audience seems to be a very broad audience. It is almost as if this product can be geared towards anyone who uses pen and paper. It is almost as if the iPad is attempting to replace paper. A huge audience which is especially intrigued in this item is designers and artists. This product makes painting and drawing digitally extremely seamless. It allows for creating layers, undoing mistakes, and many other benefits which can’t be done traditionally. It also allows access to many colors and tools which would normally be expensive and difficult to obtain. It also can be targeted at students who would like to take notes in class. This provides several note taking and organization softwares which can help students greatly. You can even write whole essays simply using the iPad. It is extremely helpful in terms of quick writing. It allows you to write on pdfs and images, so If there was a handout or textbook you wanted to take notes on, you can do it!

The intended usage is to be used to write and draw on the iPad. This makes using the iPad a more immersive experience in general. It allows for a more natural feel with the iPad. This is paperless movement Apple is pushing by further providing a similar experience to pen and paper. The Apple pencil is proprietary to the iPad. You can’t use it to its full potential on any other device.

The Apple Pencil is valued at 100 USD. This is the retail price of the device.

This product is definitely much more about utilitarian purposes than it is for design. However, the design is also quite phenomenal. The sleek shiny white pencil looks gorgeous. It is amazing. This is the best digital drawing/writing pencil designed. It is amazing to see how well they made the pencil look. It actually looks as if it fits in the family of Apple product s. The gloss and rounded edges really help provide that “Apple” experience that we all love so much. I am thoroughly impressed by the company’s consistency within their products.

The utility aspects of the pen provides over 1,000 pressure sensitivity levels. Instead of there being a separate wire that plugs into the pen, there is a lightning port cable attached to the pen. It is covered by a magnetic sleek cap with a silver lining. Both great in terms of design and utility.

Apple is trying to bring this from a luxury item to a everyday item. The tablet industry is booming and a lot of people have tablets now. This is slowly going to become an everyday item for everyone. As of now its an everyday item for those who can afford it. For some it may be very difficult to obtain this item however soon the cost will go down and it will become more affordable.  

The Apple Pencil can be bought directly from Apple at:

https://www.apple.com/apple-pencil/

Other retailers:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-apple-pencil-for-ipad-pro-white/4538802.p?skuId=4538802

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pencil-iPad-Pro-White/dp/B072QG8YJJ

Average retail price is $100.

The Manufacturer of Apple is Apple and they design their products in California. However, when they manufacture the products the work is outsourced. They are usually outsourced to different Asian countries such as China or Mongolia. Outsourcing allows for cheaper costs of production.

There is an interesting white plastic shell that is encasing the guts of the pencil. The insides of it is a combination of several different metals and wires. There are thin layers of metal that reinforce the structure. Then digging deeper is the tech that goes into the pencil itself. 32-bit RISC ARM-based Cortex-M3 MCU from ST Micro, a Bluetooth chip from Cambridge Silicon Radio (which is now part of Qualcomm), and at least five other chips with unknown functions. Powering all this is a tiny 3.82 V, 0.329 Wh lithium-ion battery. There's also the antenna and pressure and angle sensors near the tip. The insides of the pen are perfectly constructed and designed within the confines of the pen’s structure.

This object fits greatly into the global economy. Aside from the fact that Apple is an international company and they make sales all over the world, the manufacturing process is also globally engaging. People all over the world want Apple products. There are many people living in places from Dubai to Germany, using Apple products. The iPad is becoming more and more vastly used amongst society every day. It is amazing to see how much the corporation has expanded on their products throughout the globe.

During the process of outsourcing, whichever country that the manufacturing is occurring in , that country is making money. Along with making money, that countries employment also increases. There is a full range of global interconnectivity in Apples products.

There are a few products that are competitors to the Apple Pencil. A big competitor is the Surface Pen. Microsoft has made the Surface book and for that device they made the Surface Pen. The Surface pen is functionally very similar to the Apple Pencil. They only vary in a few ways. One of those ways is the fact that there is a button on the Surface Pen. The Apple Pencil has no buttons throughout the whole device. The Surface pen also has a different look. In terms of functionality they are very similar, however when it comes to aesthetics they are different. The Surface Pen has a clip on it, as well as it is a matte finish. The Apple Pencil is a gloss finish. The Surface Pen is mostly metal, when the Pencil is metal with a plastic casing around it. Also, the shape is different. The Apple Pencil has a more sleek streamlined shape while the surface has a more pen-like slightly bulkier shape.