I can't fault Apple for it - they'll sell a billion of 'em at a huge markup, and more power to them. But they didn't "reinvent the phone"; at best they reinvented the marketing of the PDA phone.
I am not saying you are wrong I just think you and I see it differently.
That the iPod has taken over the digital audio market is undeniable, but it isn't because Apple is cool, although it may be just that for a segment of the population.
It took over the market because of its integration and user interface. That is a very, very powerful combination.
The iPod works, because there are a HUGE number of people who didn't want to get into the concept of "how do I get my music onto my PC...how do I store it...where do I store it...how do I get it onto the device...how do I find a song to listen to it...and so on.
There are a lot of people to whom the interface is not as big a deal...a lot of computer people are that way who work in computer stuff for a living. I know, because I am one of them. But I also know, because my work demands it, that I step out of the computer geek shoes and put on the everyday user shoes. I have to do that to serve the people who need me. I have to develop workflows in an extremely hectic environment, determine how to use radiology software in a medical environment. I can tell you, things that are no problem to me, that is I could shrug my shoulders and do it one way or the other with no sweat, are onerous to people who aren't as comfortable and facile with technology.
I continually have to sit back and look at the way things are done and put myself in the shoes of the user who just wants to use the equipment/software to get something done. I find all to often, technology is an unfriendly barrier to many people.
What Apple did with the iPod, and what they will do with the iPhone, is make it an accessible technology that makes run of the mill people who use it feel like technodweebs. And people love it. And it is beautiful, something not to be discounted.
At the price point it is at...it will not slay the competition. But it is NO coincidence that Apple stock shot up while the stock of other cell phone makers dropped. They know the cell phone world has changed, and they also know Apple had tried to do due diligence to safeguard what it has spent the last two years working on.
It IS a revolutionary interface, there is no product out there with what, three buttons on the outside, that does what it does. It will be revolutionary. It isn't just eye candy.