Incremental Progress Vs. Dramatic Breakthrough

Quick post.
I just started reading Steven Johnson’s new book, Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age and I’m liking it a lot so far (my emphasis):

The popular response to the Miracle on the Hudson encapsulates just about everything that is flawed in the way we think about progress in our society. First, the anomalous crash landing (fatal or not) gets far more play than the ultimately more important story of long-term safety trends. As a news hook, steady, incremental progress pales beside the sexier stories of dramatic breakthrough and spectacular failure.

This point Johnson brings up is especially relevant in light of all the “boring” news around the iPhone 5.
Apple made a dramatic breakthrough with the original iPhone in 2007 and has since been making incremental progress on it ever since. But that incremental progress hasn’t been good enough for the tech press.
One final though before I get back to reading: If the iPhone 5 is boring, what Android phone is making huge breakthroughs?

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