Many great points all around. You should write an article about that dude! But yes, this was exactly the point I was trying to make. I didn't intend to start a semantic debate. I do believe in "technological leaps," but I do NOT believe the common conception of how they operate is accurate. The iPhone was a leap (not major leap, but significant nonetheless) not because it possessed any single revolutionary element, but because it combined a lot of pre-existing components into a new form factor that unlocked an entire universe of potential products and services. Human beings never create anything that is truly original unless you count original combinations of existing technologies. Everything has a history. Everything evolves. Technology evolves at a constant (and yes, exponential) rate, the technological "leaps" appear to us, but they are subjective and they only become apparent in retrospect. They are never, "Oh someone invented this new battery that is objectively a bajillion times better than anything else and they did it entirely on their own and there is literally nothing else on the market like it." For anyone interested a great book on this is Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez.