[CharlesW]

> Sort of feel it would really be helpful to replace the narrative of the creation of the modern smartphone ("the iPhone sprung forth from the head of Jobs!") with a picture of the decade+ of efforts made by the computer industry to make consumer electronics.

The thing is that many other companies could've made an iPhone before a Jobs-led Apple, just like other people could've run a 4-minute mile before Roger Bannister. But as a hardware + software + marketplace system, it truly was a discontinuous leap.

If you want to read an article that goes the other way and maybe overstates General Magic's contributions, you might also enjoy this oral history: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/general-magic-oral-h...