You can't "iterate" to the iPhone. That is his point. The iPhone is a core concept that you can't get from iterating. It's a basic phone model that didn't exist

You can't "iterate" to the iPhone. That is his point. The iPhone is a core concept that you can't get from iterating. It's a basic phone model that didn't exist before. Other companies aren't as successful at making new phones because they're reluctant to abandon everything they have to create new systems and models. Their minds are stuck in a single pattern. Nobody making those mock-up sketches for the iPhone thought that Apple would get rid of a numberpad. Nobody. Every indie designer making a mock phone kept the numpad there. You can't necessarily throw lots of people at a concept and expect it to be better. It takes a certain moral bravery to get rid of everything and start anew.