Comments on smartphone apps and innovation

Smartphones as a platform were revolutionary in terms of being able to deliver software that had capabilities never before seen by consumers and even professionals in many areas. There was a lot of innovation, an explosion of people realizing they could, as an individual, make something big. But nowadays it seems some of the brightest minds are making apps because that's where the money is - but is there a law of diminishing returns on innovations in smartphone apps or am I off base in thinking that? Obviously as more features are added, more innovation can happen and the smartphone becomes the 'control panel'. But what I'm getting at is - could the next Tesla or Farnsworth be spending a lot of time on these less innovative, but still creatively rewarding and lucrative pursuits? I know there's a lot of people in the new tech spaces like 3d printing, VR, digital logic, etc - and the iterative advances made in the semiconductor industry over the last 20 years is nothing short of amazing. But what about the individual - the celebrity genius/innovator? I don't personally think a guy like Elon Musk even qualifies as that yet, but I don't know his work well enough to comment. I don't really think Steve Jobs qualified either. These are brilliant guys but I see them more as shrewd businesspeople who were tech savvy than the genius who shows us a new branch of technology for the first time. Anyway I'd love to hear some opinions. I'm a developer myself but I have been moving more into hardware/engineering pursuits as well as physics/chem/bio (my original fields of study), etc. - and even have a quickly growing workshop set up at home. I'm wondering if this is a trend that might catch on as I've seen a lot of people doing the same. That's not to say there aren't a ton of great apps to be made that can help the world - maybe it's just that as a creative person I'm getting bored of that arena and need some time away from it.