A common complaint amongst people who buy and use smartphones, tablets and laptops produced by the Apple corporation is the declining quality of their products. A simple Google search will reveal a whole host of forums, articles and complaints about screens cracking too easily.

With so many complaints surrounding their products, it is easy to assume that Apple is an unethical company that only seeks to exploit the masses for their weakness to have the latest consumer product and, in a sense, they would be right. When compared to other devices and products on the market, it is fair to say that the Apple has lost their edge and is only riding the curtails of their branding empire.

Yet, it is impossible to deny the positive impact that Apple has had on society. They were pivotal in normalizing the concept of personal computers with the launch of the Apple II in 1977. This revolutionary product that they created helped kick start what is currently a 500 billion dollar industry world wide.

In 2007, the company unveiled the IPhone, which started yet another technological revolution across the globe. Currently there are over 1.5 billion different smartphones in use across the globe, and there were nearly three times that many Personal Computer Devices shipped globally. These devices allow us to communicate and interact with the world in ways, only 30 years ago, would have been seen as science fiction.

Even though I don’t use Apple products, I daily reap the benefits of their pioneering efforts everytime I whip out my Samsung smart phone to text my friends or when I use the Dell computers in the library to write and share this article with Hilltop Views. Does Apple have major fallings? Yes.  But they are almost single handedly responsible for much of the technological world that we benefit from today.

However, not all pioneers in technology are innovators. Some such as Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, simply took technology that already existed and created methods to help streamline their use. Amazon was by no means revolutionary in the concept of online book retailing, but what he did make that was revolutionary was the creation of a platform that would facilitate online trade and commerce between vendors worldwide. In 2015, it was reported that Amazon helped accommodate over two million vendors worldwide and this year Bezos was reported as the wealthiest person in history because of it.

While it is true that Apple and Amazon rake in high profit margins, it is only because they have truly renovated how commerce and technology function globally. Their creations and the offshots they have inspired are responsible for changing the way we think and interact with the world and will more than likely continue to inspire other entrepreneurs to take charge to find new ways to improve our society.