Since when does innovating really mean making something new? I think that already has its own word: inventing.

"Innovating" is a business buzz word. Its not meaningless, but I think that its meaning is far from inventing/creating.

The options prior were half-dead PalmOS, Windows CE devices like the iPaq, and the Blackberry.

The blackberry was the ultimate pager, but didn't have a functional web browser. The Windows device was pretty much awful, and PalmOS was waiting for euthanasia.

And how do you not consider this innovation?

Innovating isn't just about inventing new technology wholesale. It's also about packaging that technology in a way that makes it useful and desirable.

That's actually a really good point, I guess my definition could use some work.

In the past this has been true because their exceptional design skills. But companies learned that skill, it's not unique to Apple anymore. So for example, the Apple watch isn't objectively significantly better than Google's Watch OS.

But Apple still has a lot of resources and capabilities it can deploy to make something a sucsess, like any other big company, so maybe that's what we should except from the current Apple - altough considering the circumstances - this can be very lucrative.