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“Who wants a stylus?” Jobs asked then. “Nobody wants a stylus” The stylus is great in the right app(Procreate/Notion/Notability...) and holds more potential So

by lurcio 7y ago

“Who wants a stylus?” Jobs asked then. “Nobody wants a stylus” The stylus is great in the right app(Procreate/Notion/Notability...) and holds more potential So: 1. Visionaries also have their blindspots 2. Ergo, App developers are a major part of what makes Apple great (FB etc moved away from this) 3. Apples ‘walled garden’ is the only platform with the potential to provide users a wholly unified computing experience, over any Apple device... a cut back version of Weiser’s vision perhaps.

m0zg 7y ago
You have to understand the context under which this was said. Back when Jobs said it _all_ of the PDAs on the market required a stylus to operate them. And they all sucked mightily. The task of operating a PDA (let alone typing) with _fingers_ was considered impossible. So Jobs had to persuade the public that this is a better way to go. And being a Master Persuader, he did. It wasn't a "blind spot" in any shape or form, it was weapons-grade persuasion.
sornaensis 7y ago
Nobody wants a stylus to operate their phone or ipod or what have you. Styluses were a product of limited technology in those specific devices. And even modern stylus implementations are lackluster IMO. I had a surface book for a while I used for note taking and I ultimately just replaced that method with recording audio and typing out highlights. Styluses are good for very specific tasks such as literally drawing on a computer or precisely manipulating 3d objects since they can be much more pleasant than a mouse for that task, but for general interactions? No way, styluses are awful. And they can be lost/broken. So I don't see how this was a blindspot for Jobs. He clearly wanted to create stuff that was the computer equivalent of high fashion with mass appeal, not niche hardware.
- threatofrain 7y ago
  Jobs spoke in a historical context but I see the Apple Pencil as a stylus and its vision as very artist-focused (niche).

by lurcio 7y ago

m0zg 7y ago

You have to understand the context under which this was said. Back when Jobs said it _all_ of the PDAs on the market required a stylus to operate them. And they all sucked mightily. The task of operating a PDA (let alone typing) with _fingers_ was considered impossible. So Jobs had to persuade the public that this is a better way to go. And being a Master Persuader, he did. It wasn't a "blind spot" in any shape or form, it was weapons-grade persuasion.

sornaensis 7y ago

Nobody wants a stylus to operate their phone or ipod or what have you. Styluses were a product of limited technology in those specific devices. And even modern stylus implementations are lackluster IMO. I had a surface book for a while I used for note taking and I ultimately just replaced that method with recording audio and typing out highlights. Styluses are good for very specific tasks such as literally drawing on a computer or precisely manipulating 3d objects since they can be much more pleasant than a mouse for that task, but for general interactions? No way, styluses are awful. And they can be lost/broken. So I don't see how this was a blindspot for Jobs. He clearly wanted to create stuff that was the computer equivalent of high fashion with mass appeal, not niche hardware.

threatofrain 7y ago
Jobs spoke in a historical context but I see the Apple Pencil as a stylus and its vision as very artist-focused (niche).