One thing Apple had was the political ability to iterate on the design. Remember that the original iphone had no apps, and no mobile data. That made it look li

One thing Apple had was the political ability to iterate on the design. Remember that the original iphone had no apps, and no mobile data. That made it look like an odd duck in the sea of computerphones, but what it had was a slick user interface completely designed around the capabilities of capacitive screens, and that took many years for the competition to even get close to. Good user interfaces are truly hard, and Apple has always put it front and center, so it must have made sense for them.