iPhone, an innovative product from Apple, has been voted by Time magazine as “invention of the year” citing is design, innovative touch screen, and potential for changing the tech industry’s approach to mobile computing. The five elements Time listed as making the device special:

• Design. The iPhone and its software let someone discover, understand and use its features without having to read a manual. “All the cool features in the world won’t do you any good unless you can figure out how to use said features, and feel smart and attractive while doing it,” Lev Grossman, Time book and technology writer, said in an article announcing the magazine’s choice.
• Touch screen, which offers a new kind of interface that gives people the illusion of physically manipulating data with their fingers. People can use their digits, for example, to flip through album covers, click links, and resize photos. “This is, as engineers say, nontrivial,” Grossman said. “It’s part of a new way of relating to computers.“
• Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple. In negotiating the deal with AT&T to carry the iPhone, Jobs made sure that Apple held the right to build the device anyway it saw fit. This was unprecedented in an industry where carriers often have a hand in the development of mobile phones. Now that Apple has shown that manufacturers know more about design than carriers, other cellular phone makers are expected to demand more freedom, which should lead to more innovation, according to Time.
• A genuine handheld computer.

The device runs on a mobile version of Mac OS X, the iPhone is truly a platform on which we can take Web applications, such as Google Maps.

• Best selling,

by selling 1.4 million units since the iPhone’s release June 29.

What we can expect next? iPhone is likely to evolve into something far better, much like the first iPod over the last six years. Better features and cheaper.

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