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If you make a list of groundbreaking products that would include the light bulb, the bicycle, the refrigerator, the radio, the car, printed books, the newspaper

If you make a list of groundbreaking products that would include the light bulb, the bicycle, the refrigerator, the radio, the car, printed books, the newspaper, the TV, personal computers, mobile phones... The iPhone is great, but I doubt it could even make it to the top ten.

ifyoubuildit 3y ago
This is what Apple really sells. I read parent's comment and was sorta nodding along, and then read yours and realized 1) it's kind of a ludicrous statement, and 2) it sounded reasonable to me. Marketing works.
artimaeis 3y ago
I feel like comparing categories of products to an individual make of product is a bit unfair. Like, of course the car was a world-changing invention. And Ford's original model T remains a significant point of the history of automobiles. The smartphone was certainly a world-changing invention, and it seems the iPhone was just as historically significant to it as a technology. I don't think the LG Prada is going to be so thoroughly remembered by history.
akmarinov 3y ago
The things you list aren't products, they're the inventions. The car is the invention, a car product is a Tesla. The TV is the invention, a TV product is the LG OLED CX. I'm not saying the iPhone is the greatest invention ever (though the telephone might be). I'm saying that it's one of the most groundbreaking and transformative products ever. Hope that clears it up.
- dandellion 3y ago
  The things I listed are also products. I just didn't pick individual examples because for most of them I wasn't alive at the time and so I don't know what the equivalent "first mass produced model that popularised it" would be. For cars it would probably be the Model T, for example. The iPhone was a great product that sold very well, but it was more of an incremental improvement over mobile phones which had been a thing for a while. But I'm also not in the US, so maybe it doesn't seem that groundbreaking because it never was all that popular over here.
  - askafriend 3y ago
    What does this level of reductionism get you? If you follow that to its logical conclusion then it's essentially "nothing matters, nothing is interesting, who cares about anything, it would have been invented anywhere, pyramids are more interesting". It's just a deeply cynical point of view for cynicism's sake.
    - dandellion 3y ago
      I don't know, it doesn't seem like that to me, I'd even say the opposite. There are plenty of groundbreaking and great inventions, so many that I think grandparents comment of calling the iPhone the greatest product ever is just biased due to it being a very recent product and very popular right now, and Apple being the most valued public company in the world at the moment. And also it's not that I don't think it's a great product and very innovative, I would definitely put it somewhere in the top 100, I just don't think it's the number 1 is all, so decided to argue that in the comments.

ifyoubuildit 3y ago

This is what Apple really sells. I read parent's comment and was sorta nodding along, and then read yours and realized 1) it's kind of a ludicrous statement, and 2) it sounded reasonable to me. Marketing works.

artimaeis 3y ago

I feel like comparing categories of products to an individual make of product is a bit unfair. Like, of course the car was a world-changing invention. And Ford's original model T remains a significant point of the history of automobiles. The smartphone was certainly a world-changing invention, and it seems the iPhone was just as historically significant to it as a technology. I don't think the LG Prada is going to be so thoroughly remembered by history.

akmarinov 3y ago

The things you list aren't products, they're the inventions. The car is the invention, a car product is a Tesla. The TV is the invention, a TV product is the LG OLED CX. I'm not saying the iPhone is the greatest invention ever (though the telephone might be). I'm saying that it's one of the most groundbreaking and transformative products ever. Hope that clears it up.

dandellion 3y ago
The things I listed are also products. I just didn't pick individual examples because for most of them I wasn't alive at the time and so I don't know what the equivalent "first mass produced model that popularised it" would be. For cars it would probably be the Model T, for example. The iPhone was a great product that sold very well, but it was more of an incremental improvement over mobile phones which had been a thing for a while. But I'm also not in the US, so maybe it doesn't seem that groundbreaking because it never was all that popular over here.
- askafriend 3y ago
  What does this level of reductionism get you? If you follow that to its logical conclusion then it's essentially "nothing matters, nothing is interesting, who cares about anything, it would have been invented anywhere, pyramids are more interesting". It's just a deeply cynical point of view for cynicism's sake.
  - dandellion 3y ago
    I don't know, it doesn't seem like that to me, I'd even say the opposite. There are plenty of groundbreaking and great inventions, so many that I think grandparents comment of calling the iPhone the greatest product ever is just biased due to it being a very recent product and very popular right now, and Apple being the most valued public company in the world at the moment. And also it's not that I don't think it's a great product and very innovative, I would definitely put it somewhere in the top 100, I just don't think it's the number 1 is all, so decided to argue that in the comments.