Does "hard facts" simply mean that iPhone doesn't use a stylus and is still sold? That says almost nothing about using pen-based input. iPhone didn't have one, so people didn't use one. App creators knew there's no stylus, so they designed UI accordingly. That's pretty much it...
Now if MS stepped up with their Pad and introduced a high quality handwriting recognition, people would want to use a stylus for it.
PS. I'll give my stylus when you take it from my cold, dead hands. I love using it for web browsing. And I love my task switcher. Not everyone lives S.J.'s dreams.
Also, the user experience on the iPad is much more refined.
When the iPhone/iPad ecosystem matures, I expect Apple to reintroduce the stylus. Either that, or someone will develop a bluetooth stylus. (Which would exploit the capacitative touchscreen, but add pressure sensitivity.)
In fact, I think Apple does too, and they are going to enter the market with only touch, and when mass production is ready, add cameras and pen too. They always do things in an progressive evolutionary way.
MS tried tablets but not changed the UI enough. Ultra expensive and you need a pen for anything(only one detailed point, we have ten fingers).
IMHO Chinese, Korean and Japanese really need the pen for writing.
