We were all using desktops or fairly clunky laptops. Then, out of nowhere, we have touchscreens, cameras, maps, etc AND the power of a desktop machine, in a dev

We were all using desktops or fairly clunky laptops. Then, out of nowhere, we have touchscreens, cameras, maps, etc AND the power of a desktop machine, in a device that's 1/20th the size! This wasn't all of a sudden. In 1999, I already had a Palm PDA with touchscreen, pen and handwriting recognition. Digital cameras also existed, but were limited by storage size and power efficiency. Handheld color screens were a commodity since the Gameboy Color in 1998, and had existed since the Atari Lynx in 1989. All of those technologies already existed before the iPhone came along. The limiting factor, before 2005, was silicon (transistor) density and power draw, which also saw gradual increases (Moore's Law), not a leap. After 2005 or so, the processors became powerful enough to support a generic OS and that allowed all those technologies to be combined in a single device.