That statement gets used a lot to downplay the concept of a stylus, and in that context it is flatly incorrect to be blunt. Viewing it that ways makes the assumption that you intent to use a stylus as a finger replacement. The finger and the stylus are different input devices with different levels of ease of use and accuracy. It is wrong to assume they are meant to accomplish the same tasks. No device should be limited to either one... finger or stylus. I use the stylus to draw on my Surface and quite frankly I love what it allows me to do. But when I go back to surfing, fingers all the way.

Lets pretend paper is the leading technology for communication. The leader in the paper industry thinks you should write/draw with your finger. You have ten of them.

But, some people, need more precision than a human finger allows. They use an object with a finer point than our fingers. But, the rest of us are okay with just finger painting. The paper was designed to be large enough for fingers to use.

It would be nice to sometimes use a different input method on paper when the finger won't cut it. I see nothing wrong with having more than one input method. There is no right or wrong way.

Steve Jobs also said you'd have to sharpen your fingers to use a tablet smaller than the full-sized iPad. :)

Maybe Steve Jobs was wrong.

Ship it without a stylus. Require that all apps be usable with fingers. Make a sweet pressure-sensitive stylus available for extra precision. Everyone wins.

Plenty of third parties already filling that space - I don't think Apple sees the need to move in that direction.

They are doing a piss poor job of filling that space because all they can do is work within the limitations of the capacitive touch screen and/or the wireless capabilities of the device. If Apple implemented a proper digitizer, it would be far better than any third party solution.

He was talking about driving the interface. The iPad has been designed from the ground up with capactive touch so that you can navigate an iPad with your fingers. Adding a pen digitiser changes nothing.

For core usage he was right, but: I'll bet you Steve owned a pen. I'll bet you it was great. And I'll bet you he used it a lot.

Steve Jobs also said you'd write your apps for the iPhone using JavaScript. Or that you don't need multitasking.

Here's the thing, it's not the stylus that is the problem. It's the dependency on a stylus. There is a difference between doing it, and doing it right.

I would wager that Steve Jobs was not very interested in drawing or painting. I'll bet he would understand someone who was into drawing and painting who used a stylus, especially a pressure sensitive stylus.