[theguycalledtom]

> The iPhone 5, 4s, 4 etc has sold out too, despite not having one.

The iPhone 4 added a gyroscope, the 4s added a better microphones and associated audio chipset to improve speech recognition. The iPhone 5 added support for Airdrop. Following your logic then Apple really has no excuse not to add features like a digitiser because they will sell out anyway.

> They did it because it enables some things

Yes, and a pen digitiser and palm rejection enables reliable note taking, annotation and illustration.

> the technology doesn't offer much outside of that market (designers, painters and painting enthusiasts etc) That's like saying that only journalists and novel writers need a keyboard, only photographers need a camera. The success of the iPad over traditional laptops has come from a natural way to interact with things directly like they do in real life. In real life people use pens everyday to jot things down.

> If it was, Surface would have faired better too. What? The Surface does not have a pen. Only the Surface pro which is $400 more expensive than an iPad and doesn't run iOS.