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Comment by cmicali | Hacker News Reader

I don't think a $49 price point is "well out of reach" for consumer and hobbyist users.

I would argue that it is. What portion of iPad owners have ever spent any money on software or peripheral devices? Probably less than half. Now, what portion of them would be willing to shell out $50 for a stylus? I just can't imagine that a non-negligible proportion of iPad owners would be willing to spend that much on an accessory.

Also keep in mind that the current price point is "introductory" and will increase in the future.

Artist equipment is very expensive, and $50 is less than you'll pay for a decent water color brush. The last one I got was about twice that expensive, and I don't even use it anymore. I use Paper. If it works as advertised, Pencil is a steal.

The gigantic tip and the lack of pressure sensitivity guarantees that this stylus won't work any better than the ones you can buy from amazon for a dollar.

It sure looks like its well made, but take a look at the end of it and explain to me how writing/drawing with it isn't going to be a horrible experience?

Selling high-end accessories to Apple users is an existing market. There's whole companies focused on that, for instance twelve south (http://twelvesouth.com/).

Now, what portion of them would be willing to shell out $50 for a stylus?

This is an irrelevant question, because most iPad owners would not spend even a single dollar on a stylus. A better question to ask is what percentage of iPad owners would spend, say, $20 on a stylus but not $50? I suspect that the $20 to $50 jump is not that large for most people who are actually willing to pay for a stylus.

How about the other $829 it would cost me to replace my 64GB iPad 2 with 3G? It's a niche product. I have a $10 stylus that works well enough with the 2. If I wanted a real drawing solution, I'd look at something with an actual WACOM digitiser, like a Surface Pro or similar.

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