[sornaensis]

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]

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