This is a puzzling statement. OneNote on TabletPCs surely made the stylus the selling point because of what you could do with ink. Many people, me included, think of OneNote as THE killer app for TabletPCs, alas Microsoft seems to have given up on marketing it.

Interestingly, it’s Wacom tech powering Samsung’s S-Pen, which means the stylus for the Galaxy Note will also work on the Galaxy Note 10.1. However, the latter has been tweaked somewhat for better accuracy.

Steve Jobs was anti-stylus for a reason. He liked to focus his technological vision and he wanted to differentiate his tablet from others on the market (especially since most of them were far from successful). But now Apple must realize that its consumer base wants to take notes, draw and paint on the iPad. The popularity of iPad apps designed to be used with a stylus should make Apple execs ponder. Fingers are great for gestures. For drawing and taking notes, it is downright infantile. Apple must decide: Is the iPad a tool or a toy?  

When you have disasters like the JetStream coming from HTC–and I don’t mean it was a bad product, I mean HTC gave it over to AT&T who just destroyed any chance at proliferation it had–and the HTC Flyer, which was all full of smoke-and-mirror promises, super capable, but again ditched by HTC, there is little to no confidence in devices with stylii.

HTC isn’t the only company to blame though. When I had my HP convertible tablet, I was introduced to an amazing computing experience. Save for HP’s TERRIBLE hardware, the software and pen experience was incredible. OneNote was my bread and butter, and it got me through my first year of law school–until the thing caught fire during an exam–piece of ****.

Now Samsung has created a working formula that other manufacturers really should pay attention to. And, it is simple. Build it, SUPPORT IT, and MARKET IT!

Samsung seems to actually love the devices they build now–and to respect those who buy them. They didn’t used to, but they learned from their first mistake with their lack of support or care for owners of the first Galaxy, and the first Galaxy Tab.

You can’t just float devices out there and walk away from them, expecting them to do all of the work themselves. You have to SUPPORT the products you create–that’s why Apple does well, obviously. And when you create an excellent device and support it, and its users, and ALL of its functionality, you can make sure that your product is successful, stylus or not.

You may notice that Samsung has shrunken its portfolio, while HTC is just spitting out silicon babies like a ***** at a ******* ***** on *******. Samsung has the right idea–a few devices that you support 100% from start to finish. They have figured it out.

Some people, myself included, want a stylus for every device we use. We will buy devices just because they have that functionality. It isn’t a must for everyone, but for enough of us that see productivity as a priority, we want them. But more importantly, we want them to be supported by the companies that incorporate them. And Samsung is the first–in recent, post palm pilot history–to really support them for the longer term.