Yes, those are incredible improvements in the way things are. (That is, the state of the art, and by the way, "the state of the art" means "the way we normally do it," not "the best we can do.")

Improvements like this would have occurred anyway. It was not necessary for Apple to exist for them to happen, and Apple alone did not do all the improvements. You have to at least give credit to the companies that did not bring this about, leaving the opening for Apple. Improvements always depend upon the unimproved item to help define the need for improvements.