How can you make a computer or smartphone that's distinct from the competition? These are commodity appliances built to a price point with some graphic design slapped on top to pretty it up.

The iPhone launch was met with a lot of derision and eye-rolling despite that being the result of a half decade "effort to make themselves distinct from the competition".

Those events are rare, the opportunities to really shake things up are fleeting, as everyone is driving forward with relentless, incremental progress that quickly closes up all but the biggest gaps.

What could they possibly do that wouldn't be slammed as derivative?