Peter Thiel flatly says the iPhone does not count as innovation.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
What would count as true or false
True: Peter Thiel is on record, in a speech, interview, essay or book before January 2018, plainly stating that the iPhone does not count as (real or significant) innovation. Mostly true: Thiel made the substance of the point, e.g. dismissing the iPhone as not meaningful technological progress compared with breakthroughs in atoms or energy, but with some hedging or not quite 'flatly'. Mixed: Thiel's recorded statements are ambivalent, e.g. calling the iPhone innovation of a lesser kind. Mostly false: Thiel's recorded remarks treat the iPhone as genuine though limited innovation, and the claim distorts this. False: Thiel's recorded statements explicitly describe the iPhone as significant innovation and he never made the dismissive claim.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (2)
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E1 Peter Thiel To The New Yorker: "I Don't Consider [The iPhone] To Be A Technological Breakthrough" | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 21 November 2011
““I don’t consider this to be a technological breakthrough,” he tells the New Yorker.”
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E2 Peter Thiel To The New Yorker: "I Don't Consider [The iPhone] To Be A Technological Breakthrough" | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 21 November 2011
““Apple is an innovative company, but I think it’s mostly a design innovator.””
Reasoning
TechCrunch (E1), relaying a 2011 New Yorker profile, reports Thiel saying of the iPhone, "I don't consider this to be a technological breakthrough." That is the substance of dismissing it as meaningful technological progress. However, the same report (E2) has Thiel calling Apple "an innovative company" but "mostly a design innovator," a hedge that falls short of flatly saying the iPhone is not innovation. The substance is supported, but the claim's 'flatly' framing overstates his qualified wording.
Cite this claim
Marc Andreessen, “Peter Thiel flatly says the iPhone does not count as innovation.” (said 1 January 2018). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_bc408e26cdb1, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_bc408e26cdb1
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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