I think Apple has been on a streak of releasing some great products, but I'm growing weary of Apple condescendingly telling people what they don't need (such as multitasking and copy/paste) and then turning around and touting those features as innovations later. (I don't mean to imply that the new multitasking services approach is not a good solution - I think that it is).
Now, we shouldn't need a stylus or task manager: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-... The problem is, I want a stylus on something like the iPad - for some operations, writing is a more familiar metaphor than finger-painting. Likewise, their app-switcher is 90% of a task manager - all they'd need to do is add closing background apps (a feature we don't need?).
I know Apple is the master of opinionated design / "not listening to the customer" in order to provide something better than what the customer thinks they want. However, as a technical user, sometimes they outsmart me and sometimes they fail. In the next year, I'll purchase a tablet device (most likely Android-based, maybe the Notion Ink Adam... if it lives up to its hype). I don't expect for it to be as elegant as an Apple product, but it will do more of the things I want (and not insult me).
Nothing prevents you from using a 3rd party stylus (such as the Pogo stylus, which is pretty sweet) on your iPhone/iPad. In fact, I think they sell them at their retail stores. But they're not gonna ship a device with a stylus and neither will most of their competitors.
Likewise, they never said users didn't need copy/paste, they just shipped the first few versions of iPhone OS without it while they were still working on it.
re: the stylus, I absolutely agree that a 3rd party stylus will do the job, I was commenting on the suggestion that stylus-based interaction is necessarily a symptom of bad interaction design. In fact, although it is not fashionable, inclusion of a stylus with a tablet device would be a positive for me. (Note: I'm not advocating the old WinMo finger-unfriendly UI model)
I agree. A PalmOS or WinCE kind of stylus is probably inferior to multitouch, but a Wacom-style pen that can detect the position while the tip is hovering and has subpixel precision and pressure sensitivity opens a lot of doors.
Now, we shouldn't need a stylus or task manager: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-... The problem is, I want a stylus on something like the iPad - for some operations, writing is a more familiar metaphor than finger-painting. Likewise, their app-switcher is 90% of a task manager - all they'd need to do is add closing background apps (a feature we don't need?).
I know Apple is the master of opinionated design / "not listening to the customer" in order to provide something better than what the customer thinks they want. However, as a technical user, sometimes they outsmart me and sometimes they fail. In the next year, I'll purchase a tablet device (most likely Android-based, maybe the Notion Ink Adam... if it lives up to its hype). I don't expect for it to be as elegant as an Apple product, but it will do more of the things I want (and not insult me).