People forget that “multi touch” and “capacitive touchscreens” were not Apple inventions. They existed prior to the iPhone. The iPhone was just the first “it just works” adaptation of it

Not a great example as multitouch in its modern incarnation was a niche academic technology, the most refined version of which was built by a 2 person startup that Apple quickly acquired. There was still a long way to go to make the tech as ubiquitous as it is today and that was all heavy lifting done by Apple.

Well, the heavy lifting was supervised by the same people, but while receiving Apple paychecks :)