#IdeasChat #IdeasContinued: What’s Our Favorite Invention?
Every Tuesday, we gather on Twitter to discuss a wide-range of fascinating topics, including entrepreneurship, creativity, social action and more. Yesterday we celebrated Edison’s birthday with a lively conversation about innovations and inventions that have affected us all.
And ever since we’ve been mulling over one question in particular:
While initially the favorite inventions thrown out into the twitter-sphere included the immersion blender, alternative fuels and even Nutella, we eventually found consensus:
So, what’s so amazing about the iPhone? Well, for one, the iPhone’s sleek design and user-friendly, intuitive touchscreen was so groundbreaking that even in the fast-moving tech world, this 2008 article hailing the Apple product as disruptive and “gorgeous” feels relevant even six years later. What is more, this small device stores our photos, lets us Google whenever and wherever we want and has gotten us addicted to countless games.
Even more intriguing is the inroads that the iPhone is making into the developing world and other remote areas. The New Yorker has been tracking cell phones in Burma since 2012 when the country was ranked 215 out of 217 countries in “mobile phone penetration.” Today, cell phones are still far from common, but that doesn’t stop iPhones from going for $1,400 to eager Burmese buyers. They’re even pricier in other countries, prompting Business Week to call the iPhone the “new international currency.” And if the flip phone could help Indian fishermen share pricing information and make fishing markets more efficient, we can only imagine how effective other cell phone technologies could be in fostering economic growth.
So, what do you think? Are you convinced that the iPhone is the new Millennium’s most important invention so far? Share your own ideas using #ideaschat throughout the week, and next week we’ll be back on Tuesday at 11 a.m. CST with a new #ideaschat and more innovative ideas.
