The next time you try to explain how your invention is the greatest thing since sliced bread, you may want to use the iPhone as comparison, instead. Turns out the iPhone ranks No. 8 in a UK consumer survey of the 100 most important inventions, far outdistancing sliced bread at No. 70.
The iPhone, which has been around just since 2007, beat out even everyday conveniences as the flushing toilet, painkillers and cars. Penicillin slipped in just ahead of Apple’s handset with the wheel, the airplane and the light bulb deemed the three best inventions. The Cupertino, Calif. company should take comfort that the Android cell phone operating system didn’t make the list and Internet giant Google ranks No. 25, behind toilet paper, vacuum cleaners and trains.
In a sign of how the iPhone eclipses previous Apple inventions, the iPod sits in 56th place behind umbrellas and tea bags.
“It’s amazing to see how much the iPhone is valued, sitting alongside inventions such as Penicillin in people’s perceptions and being declared a more important invention than miracle gadgets of their own time, such as the concept,” Lance Batchelor, Tesco Mobile CEO, said. The survey asked 4,000 UK consumers.
[Via 9to5Mac]
