Why would Lev Grossman, one of the first four few reviewers of the iPhone, name Apple's gadget Time's Invention of the Year? Here are his five reasons: it's pretty, it's got a touchscreen, it'll make other phones better, it's a development platform (not just a phone), and it'll be upgraded for years to come.
While we agree with the fact that it's pretty and that it has a touchscreen (can't really argue about that) and that it might make other phones better, the development platform still won't "officially" be here until February, plus, we don't really know how often Apple will actually evolve the software as of yet. We're not saying we wouldn't give it the invention of the year (hell, I wrote a book on it), we're just saying we wouldn't slobber quite so much as Grossman did and award points for things that aren't quite here yet. [Time]