He was comparing the design goals of the original iPhone to the preexisting smartphone market 12+ years ago. The fact that it was designed to not require a styl

He was comparing the design goals of the original iPhone to the preexisting smartphone market 12+ years ago. The fact that it was designed to not require a stylus for basic usage WAS a big deal. If you never used a Palm Treo or a Windows tablet or a PocketPC device in the early 2000s, you may not realize what he's talking about, but a stylus was absolutely required for most or all basic operations on competing devices at the time, and that UI model was (clearly, in hindsight) holding back the entire industry. If you don't remember having to use Graffiti to scrawl out characters on the bottom third of a PalmOS device, this quote has likely never been contextualized for you.