Following the unveiling of the first MacBook Pro featuring a touchscreen, social media erupted with memes referencing a 2010 preview of OS X Lion. During that era, Steve Jobs held a firm stance against touch displays on laptops, arguing that they were ergonomically flawed for vertical use. He famously warned that after a short period, users would become fatigued, and eventually, their arms would fall off from the strain. Instead of a touch screen, Jobs championed the existing multitouch trackpad as the superior method for adding gestures like pinch-to-zoom to notebooks, citing user surveys to support his position.
Jobs' skepticism extended beyond laptops to input accessories like styluses. During the 2007 launch of the first iPhone, he questioned who would want a stylus that needed to be constantly retrieved and stored, noting the high risk of losing it. He concluded his argument on the matter with a dismissive sound effect. While these comments originally targeted the iPhone rather than the iPad, the modern landscape has shifted significantly. The new iPhone Duo now supports the Apple Pencil via USB-C, allowing users to sketch or take notes, a functionality that Jobs likely would have rejected despite its utility on larger screens.
The iPad itself represents another departure from Jobs' original vision. He initially positioned the tablet as an intermediate category between the iPhone and traditional PCs, intended for consumption rather than replacing computers entirely. Although Apple included the iWork suite with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, these apps were designed to synchronize with Macs rather than function as standalone productivity tools in a pre-iCloud era. Today, the iPad has transcended this intermediate status. It now supports mouse and keyboard inputs, features dynamic window management in iPadOS 26, and works seamlessly with external displays, transforming from a simple device for reading and browsing into a capable workstation.
Sources: t3n.