Samsung’s stylus love affair continues: Buys 5% of Wacom for $58.2M

You may think Samsung is crazy for bringing back the stylus in the touchscreen smartphone age, but the surprisingly strong sales of its Galaxy Note smartphone line don’t lie.

Now Samsung is committing itself even more to the stylus market by purchasing 5 percent of Wacom for $58.2 million, the company announced this morning. Wacom is famous for its pressure-sensitive stylus technology, and it’s also provided the stylus tech in Samsung’s Galaxy Note phones and tablets.

While it’s not a huge investment for Samsung, it’s a clear sign the company doesn’t plan to back away from the stylus market anytime soon. Wacom says the investment will be used for product development, manufacturing, and supply chain enhancements for Samsung-supplied products by March 2013. Expect even more Samsung devices to sports styluses over the next few years (it seems only inevitable that the Galaxy S line will eventually get some sort of stylus support).

Samsung made a good effort with the stylus in the first Galaxy Note, though it wasn’t as accurate as I would have liked. With the Galaxy Note 2, Samsung vastly improved the stylus accuracy and pressure sensitivity. The company also added a nifty “hover” feature, that lets you manipulate objects on the phone’s screen without actually touching it.

Via Android Authority; Photo by Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat