Jean-Louis Gassée on whether Apple ever invented anything
http://www.mondaynote.com/2012/09/02/apple-never-invented-anything/
For thirty years, the industry had tried to create a tablet, and it had tried too hard. The devices kept clotting, one after the other. Alan Kay’s Dynabook, Go, Eo, GridPad, various Microsoft-powered Tablet PCs, even Apple’s Newton in the early nineties….they didn’t congeal, nothing took.
The more effortless the results seem to be, the increased likelihood that those responsible put uniquely competent effort into the achievement.