Successive redesigns in aggregating ideas underpin the success: but that may not happen in the same company?

Unfolding life cycle of electronic gadgets through a series of design--pursuing the journey of creative destruction. This reality opens the opportunity to new entrants, and also poses threat to incumbents.

The first smartphone is IBM's Simon, released in 1994. But IBM discontinued it within a year, as it could sell only 50,000 units.

Apple's Newton was a great PDA, released in 1993--but could not succeed in generating profitable business.

BlackBerry sold more than 50 million of the devices in 2011, able to connect to the Internet, send and receive email, and chat with one another over the company’s BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, service. But lost it's marketshare to iPhone, as it failed to redesign with multitouch feature in replacing the keyboard.

PalmTrio broke the ground of adding phone features to PDA, but could not sustain the success.

iPhone as an aggregator of many of the ideas of the predecessors--with added multitouch feature--resonated being all time success story. But the success of the iPhone is being created through a series of redesigns too.

A series of redesign is at the core in shaping the life cycle of PDA, handsets or palmtop computer creating the success story of iPhone.