The original iPhone is the device which popularized capacitive touchscreens. Before that, we were using resistive touchscreens [1], if we were using touchscreen

The original iPhone is the device which popularized capacitive touchscreens. Before that, we were using resistive touchscreens [1], if we were using touchscreens. In that sense, it has actually popularized touchscreens as we know them. It is an entire interface which is now not only the market leader in touchscreen in smartphones, it is replacing physical UI practically everywhere (sometimes that may not seem to make sense...). It has also replaced the default UI on websites, and iOS devices yield Apple more profit than macOS (or Mac OS X or whatever predecessor) ever did. Its huge. [1] My printer (Brother) has a resistive touchscreen and every time I have to use it, I'm reminded how much resistive touchscreens suck.