Apple Inc planned to launch a new $49 Apple Pencil compatible with the iPhone this year, but canceled the plan at the last minute, according to a brief new rumor from Asia.
Apple Pencil Red
According to a Weibo shared by Duan Rui on Twitter, Apple is said to be planning to release a new Apple Pencil code-named “Maker” (or more likely “Marker”) at a September 2022 event, even at the expense of a large scale. Over 1 million accessories were produced, but the release was canceled at the last minute for unknown reasons.
To keep costs down, the device is said to lack pressure-sensing technology or a rechargeable battery, and instead uses an onboard chip to power the stylus through the iPad or iPhone screen, similar to how Samsung’s S-Pen stylus works.
At $49 (about 1,500 Taiwan dollars), the unreleased Apple Pencil is much cheaper than the first- and second-generation Apple Pencil models, which are priced at $99 (about 3,000 Taiwan dollars) and $129 (about 4,000 Taiwan dollars).
Unfortunately, there is no record of where the Apple Pencil rumors came from, so the claims require a fair amount of analysis. Also, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors about developing an Apple Pencil to work with the iPhone, but none of those rumors came to fruition.
Still, the battery-less Apple Pencil will pair nicely with the latest 10th-generation iPad, which has a USB-C port and requires a pricey $9 Lightning dongle to connect with the first-generation iPad. For use with the Apple Pencil. It’s unclear, though, why Apple would kill plans for an accessory that had already entered mass production.
If it’s really a thing, and Apple produced this many units, past history would suggest that some units end up being leaked.
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