Innovation can and usually does mean incremental improvement.
They were not cheap plastic phones, they were expensive miniaturized phones representing the state of the art of portable phone devices.
I blame Apple if nowadays we keep bricks in our pockets.
Bricks that can't work on a battery more than 12 hours.
> PCs that last 12 to 24 months at best
I'm a proud owner of functioning PCs of the 90s, 2000s and 2010s.
The HW inside many PCs is of the same quality than the HW on a Mac, if not better, because people could chose what to put inside them.
Also, its interesting that you say "lasting 12-24 months at best" when recent Apple laptops have had plenty of issues necessitating recalls and redesigns.