iPhone: the Invention of the Year?

Really? The best invention this year is the iPhone? Its a good improvement on existing concepts of cell phones and handheld computers, but invention... seems a little loose to me. But then again, Time has in the past named such earth-shattering inventions as iTunes (2003), and YouTube (2006) as the best in those years.

Personally I would have chosen something like Sandia's Electro Needle above any cell phone this year; being able to detect viruses, toxins, and take other blood readings with a sensor rather than by taking a blood sample kind of trumps downloading music at Starbucks in my mind. But that's just me.

Time does have some very good reasons for choosing the iPhone over all other inventions this year:

1. "It's Pretty" - oh, well... there you go. that should be #1 on the list. I mean, c'mon. let's face it. Gutenberg's doohickey was one butt-ugly contraption. beauty should always be the first thing on the check-list.

2. "It's touchy-feely" - hmmm. well, it wasn't the first touch screen nor was it the first multi-touch screen. did the guy that invented the touch screen in the first place make Time's list that year? oh well, Apple used a touch screen...that's innovative.

3. "It will make other phones better" - its probably more accurate to say that it will make other phones more like the iPhone. if that's better, I'm unconvinced but I'll give this one a pass as a statement on its own but not as a reason for it being the best invention of the year.

4. "It's not a phone, it's a platform" - they are certainly right about he phone part. and yes, it is a platform. but having a mobile platform isn't new. and there is no way to judge if this is the best platform ever until Apple lets people start developing on it. so Apple invented yet another mobile platform which we can't really judge right now, but its the best.

and lastly

5. "It is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come" - ahh. so okay. it might really suck right now. and no, you can't always make calls from this phone. and the network is really really slow. and if you try to develop anything for it right now we're going to ruin your device. but the next one... now that's really going to kick ass.