The genius was the user interface. When it first came out, I sort of laughed... who is going to browse the web on such a tiny screen.
After a few months I went into an apple store out of curiosity and tried it out. With the touch screen and the intuitive zooms and scrolls you could actually surf the web! I was sold and got a 3G when it came out and loved it.
But I still wished for a larger screen. When Samsung came out with the Galaxies I switched and still have that galaxy and it works great.
But all the credit goes to Steve Jobs - he was a true genius. He understood what people wanted more than the people themselves. His uncompromising stand on aesthetics and ease of use was unsurpassed.
Yes, Steve Jobs knew what the public wanted before they knew they would want it.
I was using a very small Samsung Flip Phone running Palm OS, maybe a 2 inch screen, loved it until the iPhone came out. The first one was a good first effort but sort of sucked until the 3G came out then it was over for anything but a smart phone. I was never tempted to use anything other than an iPhone, now don't even use one, have iPads for old eyes.