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How did time confuse evolution with invention?

It bugs me that the iPhone has been voted “invention” of the year by Time magazine. To me, an invention is something that does something fundamentally new, or does something done elsewhere in a fundamentally new way.

The last time I checked, the iPhone bundles up a bunch of well-executed ideas into a nice phone that plays music and browses the Internet in a uniquely Apple way. Nothing it does is “new” though - and though it may push the industry as a whole to rethink their offerings, its still evolutionary. A light bulb 2.0 is still a light bulb, invented by Thomas Edison, even if its red, shatter proof, lasts 10x longer, and leased for a monthly fee instead of bought outright. Was the first laptop considered an “invention?” Or just a different type of something that existed already - the personal computer?

IMHO, Time is confusing media frenzy with true creativity. Apple, for all their greatness, IMHO is best at creatively refining existing products or categories - not “inventing” new ones.

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