Really? Where can I read about this? What I recall is that Jobs tasked Apple to create a phone and had a bake-off between the iPod guy (Tony something) and Fed

Really? Where can I read about this? What I recall is that Jobs tasked Apple to create a phone and had a bake-off between the iPod guy (Tony something) and Federighi, and the iPod side of the firm created a device with a click wheel, Federighi's team created a device with a touch screen and Jobs made the call to go with the touch screen. It'd be weird if it went from that to Jobs having to be begged to launch it, especially as it was clearly awesome and Jobs himself had been so deeply involved in the design.