Good article. I think a lot of times, including with myself, design is used as a "hack" to somehow skips steps. It's not like IDEO had to design the whole mac, or design how the FIRST mouse would work, or the wiring, or the bluetooth. They had these tools and had to put them together, with already. If there is a goal way too far out and "design" is supposed to get you there, I would guess there will be a lot of speedbumps on the way.

Was the iPhone design thought largely out of thin air? Or was it brought about by people who understood and worked the the technology for years and that is what drove the design focus?