Steve Jobs had a vision and the skills to manifest that vision into a real product that could be mass produced and sold for a profit. He may have had taste, but

Steve Jobs had a vision and the skills to manifest that vision into a real product that could be mass produced and sold for a profit. He may have had taste, but that's nothing special, every celebrity has taste as far as their legions of fans are concerned. I'm not entirely convinced that taste is really all that relevant when considering the success of iOS. Apple engineered a very tiny computer that completely eclipsed all other phones on the market in terms of feature set (large touch screen, gps, edge, wifi, IM, e-mail, mp3 player, visual voicemail, motion controls, modern browser, integration with iTunes ecosystem etc). Details like icon spacing, bezel width, and font kerning really didn't matter at the end of the day. Finally, if Steve Jobs had any taste, it certainly wasn't appreciated by the masses who pay extra to obscure the iPhone's design with a phone case that favors their personal taste.