Yes, it is the mechanism inside that makes it work. I accidentally cracked the stylus from another eReader and when I bought a replacement I went to town on the broken one. The inside of the Wacom stylus is unbelievably complicated -- Stacked layers of washers, metal disks, o-rings, a coil of metal finer than hair. It's not an inert stick in spite of its external appearance. That's why they don't cost 49 cents to replace.