Well, back in 2003 or 2004 I got myself a pretty damn expensive Sony Ericsson P910i (for €700 or so) in the hopes it would provide functionality that remotely r

Well, back in 2003 or 2004 I got myself a pretty damn expensive Sony Ericsson P910i (for €700 or so) in the hopes it would provide functionality that remotely resembled that of an iPhone. It was okish, but disappointing in some areas. I actually bought 3rd party software for it, including GPS software with an external bluetooth GPS module, which worked pretty well. Nokia also had their communicator lineup, which was similarly expensive. While these weren't mainstream, they did exist and sold well enough to warrant multiple generations of them, and were more expensive than the initial iPhone was at release - so I don't understand the people who said nobody would buy that thing. This combined an expensive music player that sold a ton of units with a phone for more or less what you'd pay for a decent higher-end phone + an iPod in those days. The moment I saw it, I knew I'd buy one. The lack of installable 3rd party apps and a GPS unit was something I immediately identified as an issue, but it was clear what direction they would be going in. I eventually had to wait until the 3G was available in Europe - which also addressed both issues (although the GPS receiver was absolute crap).