Steve Jobs said Apple would never do this—and Apple is doing it

Steve Jobs

"Who wants a stylus?" Steve Jobs asked a crowd back in 2007 when he first introduced Apple's iPhone.



"You have to get them and put them away and you lose them," he continued. "Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus, so let's not use a stylus."

Eight years later, the company has revealed the Apple Pencil, a device remarkably similar to a stylus. The Apple Pencil is designed to aid users in graphic design, photo editing and document annotations on its new iPad Pro.

Unlike styluses, this device detects the pressure, position and tilt of the pen against an iPad and will create thin and thick lines based on slope of the Apple Pencil's tip. The device can be recharged by plugging the lighting connector directly into the iPad device.

The Apple Pencil will be sold separately from the new iPad and will cost $99.

This is not the first departure from Jobs' legacy.

In 2010, Jobs spoke during an Apple quarterly earnings call about making a tablet smaller than 10 inches.

"It is meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one-quarter of the present size," he said.

Two years later, Apple released the iPad mini, an iPad with a 7.9-inch screen—two-thirds the size of the iPad.

Similarly, Jobs was publicly against Apple's making larger phones. However, in the years that followed, the company released the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6, each larger than the one before.

Apple CEO Tim Cook noted at a memorial tribute to Steve Jobs in 2011, that "among his last advice he had for me, and for all of you, was to never ask what he would do. 'Just do what's right.' "

It appears the company has taken those words to heart.

CNBC