Well, whatever his reasoning, he obviously changed his mind about cameras on the iPod touch. So if he had lived a few more years, then who's to say he wouldn't have changed his mind about stylus for the iPad?
Well your logical fallacy happens when you compare a strong active stance on something such as how he demonstrated on multiple occasions speaking out about the stylus (yes on iPad too), and comparing that to the soft stance he had on how to market the Touch at first.
Q: How do you close applications when multitasking?
A: (Scott Forstall) You don't have to. The user just uses things and doesn't ever have to worry about it.
A: (Steve Jobs) It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager... they blew it. Users shouldn't
ever have to think about it.
Doesnt mean much, years of using winmobile and I can stylus write faster than most can type with a standalone keyboard. I would routinely write 30-40 patient notes and several reports per day on my ipaq. For the average first time user the iPads keyboard input is going to be much slower than handwriting.
To be fair, you compared your "years of experience" with the stylus vs the average first time user.
So if you practice on a stylus for years, you can input faster than someone that just got their first iPad and tries to use the onscreen?
Cool.
In reality,
Handwriting: 30 WPM
iPad on screen: 45-55 WPM
Hard Keyboard: 80-100 WPM
Exactly my point about the bluetooth keyboard. At least a stylus can be made to slip inside the iPad like the galaxy note. True note taking and drawing are more than niche functions for many users, its just another market for apple to capitalize on. Thousands of years to advance from finger painting on cave walls to writing with a utensil, shame we have to go back to caveman painting.
Again, if you want to paint, get a specialty setup.
The iPad can go into Pro Territory, but only when those ventures don't take away from the most important thing: minimalism. Design. Consumer experience.
Maybe, maybe not. You can look at my post where I make an educated guess that a 300 dpi touch sensor wouldn't be much expense to get on there. Tha iPad can be considered redundant in MANY functions depending how you look at it, but that's overlooking the fact that it can do many of these functions plus add portability. This is especially obvious in comparing it to a cintiq which requires you to lug around a PC. The iPad can be a standalone tool, or it can be a field tool then when you get home you can get more detail with the home tools. It's already used this way today.
These people who use field tools, they are already in the category of person who would be such a small minority that it would make more sense to leave it as a 3rd party add-on and not latch on extra things to it in-box.
Exactly. It is so absurd when people act as if the iPad available when Jobs passed is anything close to the final design. Just because Jobs didn't want a stylus 2 years ago doesn't mean he would never change his perspective on it so arguing to "protect his legacy" or trying to pretend he was incapable of change is ridiculous.
It just goes against other more important principles that he held priority for; such as design.
Typical of many Apple fan myths, the idea that "Jobs had a four year plan" came from a single unreferenced source that got repeated until it became "fact".
The day he died, the UK Daily Mail newspaper made up the claim, vaguely quoting analysts' beliefs. From there the story grew and grew.
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We already know that Jobs didn't always plan ahead in detail. He was more of a "Eureka!" type. For example, he knew he wanted to do a phone, but didn't know how Apple would do it until shown that tablet UI prototype. Then it was full speed ahead.
Even then, he had no plans to allow third party apps on the iPhone and instead called doing web apps "sweet". He radically lowered the iPhone price two months after its debut, which caused an online riot and his own public apology. It was clear that Apple was feeling its way around a market that was totally new to them, and didn't have long term plans yet.
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Jobs was also famous for nay-saying anything that Apple didn't itself sell or use at a moment in time... and then turning around and calling that feature magical when they did have it. That's just salesmanship.
Heck, Jobs put down Windows tablets a decade ago, and not because of the UI. He stated that Apple research showed that people wanted keyboards on their portable computers.
The upshot is that what he said about a stylus was not surprising... nor was it meaningful. Especially since an active pen is not the same thing as a stylus (which is basically just a finger replacement).
True, but the thing he "Eureka'd" about was something that allowed him to achieve more minimalism.
If you check out the clip above from 2007 where he mentions it, he says something seemingly off the cuff but you can tell it was perfectly crafted to convey what he meant. He said:
"you have to get em, and put em away, (and you lose em... yeaaachhh)"
Thats really the biggest key in all this.
Think of the 70 year grandpas who famously can just pick one of these up and not feel intimidated when they otherwise might. The one button approach. The ultra minimalism which helps guide you like a tunnel to your path even if you don't know where you're supposed to be going.
It goes against the principles of what got them massive love in the first place.
In a way, the stylus is a slap in the face to the majority, for the sake of a small minority.
I personally don't want one, don't need one, would never use one, would never "pull it out" if it was there because I can just use my finger, and would be annoyed if there were "extra" things on my magical iPad. (Part of that final magical vibe being the revolutionary elegant minimalism of it all)
I don't want extra things and Steve would have agreed, and the masses agree. Maybe some of us are over it because we had them for years, we are used to it and want something new, but think about new customers. The elegant minimalism is what draws them in.
Its weird how you guys see Jobs as this volatile unpredictable mind, when to me, everything he did made perfect sense and simply came off as a no-nonsense approach to design in a world where nerdism clouded the judgement of designers who didn't truly understand the average consumer.
Besides that, I agree that active pen technology is different than a stylus.
I agree that there is a niche of people who would find active pen tech useful even on the iPad for portability.
I dont agree it should be an attached extremity in-box by default.
I do agree that you should be able to go into settings, switch a simple slider that says "active pen support" and when you do that, the screen now is open to reading/sensing the type of fine active pen support that takes it from where it is now, and brings it closer to what it feels like on pro systems. This would be after purchasing a third party add on, or it can even be in the Apple store like any other attachments Apple sells.
But nothing that takes away from the minimalism which is way more important for the end user experience. The idea of it being there, and even having to THINK about it, is tacky and takes away from the greater overall vibe of everything.
logo was worthless. If they weren't ready to offer it at that time, he downplayed it as a feature. He probably even convinced most of the others within the company that this was the way to go. It's not hard to understand because it's just a sales pitch. Once you accept that it's fairly transparent.
