Steve Jobs did not invent the iPhone

Yes, I know it's a sensationalist headline, but I don't care. One man did not design and construct the hardware, and code and test the software, for the iPhone. Or for any of the iDevices, for that matter.

So - Steve Jobs did not create the iPhone. A company called Apple Inc. created the iPhone. A company called Apple Inc. gave us the iPod. A subset of its 60,000 employees slogged day and night to write and rewrite and compile and test and retest the software that we know as iOS. Another subset spent countless hours designing the hardware aesthetics and the software user interface, trying to marry hi-tech with haute couture, innovation with intuitiveness, form with function. Not to mention the workers at Foxconn who manufactured with pin-point precision the beautiful bodies that would go on to become the most revolutionary devices of their time.

I'm not denying that the man was a visionary. It's just that I think that the people who contributed far more than Steve Jobs himself deserve due credit. Which is why statements like "Steve Jobs invented the iPhone", "Jobs gave us the iPad", etc. piss me off.

And its not Steve Jobs alone. Jeff Bezos did not invent the Kindle. A company called Amazon invented the Kindle. How do we even know if the Kindle was Jeff Bezos' idea in the first place? It could've very well been some random employee who thought "Hey, E-Books seem to be all the rage right now. The 'net is getting ubiquitous. People seem to be okay with downloading and reading E-Books on their computer. Heck, Google is even digitizing real books. Why not make a device that can store and show E-Books? Oh, and it's convenient that we sell books too, so we'll start selling E-Books as well.". He would've brought it up in some office conversation, and idea would've spread - all the way up to Bezos. All Bezos would've had to do was say "Do it." and it got done.


Back to Apple - ever heard of a guy called Steve Wozniak? Yeah, when Apple was a two-man operation, Woz was (and still is) the tech whiz. Jobs was, simply put, the marketing guy. Yet, you never saw Woz getting any credit. Steve (Jobs) was the one doing the selling. He was the guy facing the customer. Hence, he was always the one getting the kudos.


Oddly, the same thing doesn't happen with all big companies. You don't hear people saying "Oh, hey, Larry Page and Sergey Brin gave us Android/Chrome" or "Wow, Steve Ballmer's Metro UI is pretty slick" or "Man, Zuckerburg really nailed it with the Timeline feature". No. It's Google's Android operating system. It's Google's Chrome browse. It's Microsoft's Metro UI. It's Facebook's Timeline feature. Why the double standards?

You know the truly fucked up part of it all? The companies I just mentioned were founded by people who actually did something. "Larry Page & Sergey Brin gave us Google Search" is true. Ditto for "Mark Zuckerburg gave the world Facebook". Ok, Steve Ballmer didn't really give us anything other than someone to ridicule or grossly insult every time Windows crashes. But hey, that's quite a contribution. However, Bill Gates did write BASIC. You've never heard "Gates' Windows 95", have you?

Please, people. When a company releases a product, it's because the employees of the company worked to get it out. It's because of the people you rarely see on stage at conferences, if ever. Give them credit. Shower your praise on them. Not on the guy who smiles and simply shows you what their hard work accomplished.