The concept of "creative destruction," coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942, describes the paradoxical process by which innovation simultaneously creates new industries while rendering existing ones obsolete. Consider the smartphone: within a decade of the iPhone's launch, it had effectively dismantled the markets for point-and-shoot cameras, standalone GPS devices, MP3 players, and alarm clocks — while spawning entirely new sectors like app development and the gig economy. This relentless cycle, Schumpeter argued, is not a bug but the essential engine of capitalism.