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And the fact that it's an astonishing device with groundbreaking functionality, a paradigm-redefining user interface and a game-changing applications ecosystem didn't count for squat, I suppose.

Put up or shut up....what groundbreaking functionality did the iPhone bring that was not present already?

The 3GS had a virtual compass and it was hailed as miraculous.....even though most other platforms offer it.

Don't get me wrong....the interface is slick and functions better than any other out there currently. The package is stylish and trim. It is a nice appliance, but it is not worthy of the foaming at the mouth witnessed in the MSM every time a new iteration is released.

“what groundbreaking functionality did the iPhone bring that was not present already?”

Hey iPhone has Cut and Paste... Oh wait that wasn’t until version 3.0. My Blackberry 7290 had that 5 years ago.

Hey iPhone can play music... Oh wait my Blackberry Curve can do that using a similar interface from Miutunes and my 16 gig SDHC Micro SD card.

Hey the iPhone can link up to Exchange for corporate email... Well some of the time. Requires lots of configuration... Drains the battery if you push too often... Is not secure... and frequently blows its brains out and requires setting it up again. My Blackberry rusn for three days on a charge. I get Email on my Blackberry before it pops in to my desktop Outlook.

Hey the iPhone has a built in camera... Yeah so does my Blackberry - 3.2 megapixels

Hey the iPhone has a video camera... Yep ditto my Blackberry

Hey the iPhone has GPS... Yep dito my Blackberry curve. GPS with turn by turn nav.

Hey the iPhone can connect to Wifi... Ditto my Blackberry Curve.

Hey the iPhone has an iFart app so you can make farting noises... Okay you got me there. No farting app for the Blackberry.

Different devices for different people. My company will provide you with either an iPhone or Blackberry your choice. 16 people carry Blackberries and 2 people carry iPhones. The one’s that carry iPhone spend and inordinate amount of time buying with and playing with applications and they have 10 times the trouble tickets that Blackberries have.

As far as Microsoft... Microsoft makes a smart phone???

"Put up or shut up....what groundbreaking functionality did the iPhone bring that was not present already? The 3GS had a virtual compass and it was hailed as miraculous.....even though most other platforms offer it. Don't get me wrong....the interface is slick and functions better than any other out there currently. The package is stylish and trim. It is a nice appliance, but it is not worthy of the foaming at the mouth witnessed in the MSM every time a new iteration is released. "

Where to start.

First, students of the innovation process will acknowledge that almost all breakthroughs are recombinant in nature. The out-of-the-box thinking that underlies and animates most innovation involves mashing together technologies that previously haven't been married. And so it was with the iPhone: the glorious screen stretching over nearly the full face of the device, borrowed from HDTVs. The touch-screen and soft user interface including a mind-reading keyboard of surprising accuracy. A real browser. WiFi. A secure, Unix-based OS-- a "real" computer OS, with industrial-strength underpinnings. Email. Portable media capabilities including video and really superb, high-fidelity audio playback and recording capabilities. A camera. Google maps. Later, GPS, and now a compass and video-camera capability.

Sure, all these had existed in some form or another, just not all-at-once in a pocketable, affordable unit that anyone could use. Then came Apple's next tip-o'-the-hat to innovation theory: the construction and orchestration of an ecosystem, with the App Store and free (and very sophisticated) development tools. Billions of app downloads later, the App Store is now acknowledged as a reason-to-buy the iPhone. Palm's lack of a similarly vibrant community, meanwhile, is spotlighted as a reason for its comparatively sluggish debut of the Pre.

You may say it's not worthy of the foaming-at-the-mouth in the media. Personally, I do, and I suspect we'd both prefer any story of American innovation, risk-taking and success to the wailing ululations over the detestable Ted Kennedy today.

There's another thing. Recall that the iPhone was not Apple's first foray into cell phones. They had a joint venture with Motorola a few years before. That did not go well, because the hidebound and tremulous Motorola vetoed Apple's ideas and strangled the product in its crib. Apple wisely recognized the cell phone industry as seriously needing a shake-up. And shake it up they did.

Hats off to Apple, a great American success story, and to Steve Jobs, arguably the finest businessman alive today. I can think of no other person who has turned more than two industries on their ear in the course of their career, and he's revolutionized at least a half dozen in a quick count: personal computers, printers, music distribution, personal computers again, portable personal media, cell phones... may he live long and continue to prosper, because we all benefit from his brilliant ideas, persistence and risk-taking.

Put up or shut up....what groundbreaking functionality did the iPhone bring that was not present already?

Your assertion that a feature must be entirely brand new, never before seen in the universe to qualify as innovative, fresh, or groundbreaking is an absurdly false premise.

The iPhone does small things and big things well, but its major selling point is that it combines these improvements into one package, rather than having these changes and additions made over the course of several years to multiple lines of phone models. Visual Voicemail alone is a massive common sense improvement. But then you toss in a web browser that can render pages as if it were a desktop browser, full-featured email, convergence (the ability to play movies and music, browse the web, etc), the dozens of innovations that went into the interface (multitouch, the capacitive touchscreen allowing for minimal physical buttons, software interaction with the touchscreen), the app store, the form factor and industrial design, the extensive syncing capabilities... I can go.

Many, but not all, of these features have been done elsewhere on other cell phones prior to the iPhone's launch. The trouble is that these features were localized and specialized. The Blackberry offered push email and instantaneous wireless syncing of contacts, calendars, and email. The iPhone matched and exceeded it in those areas, and then vastly exceeded it in every other area.

The fact that all of this is not self-evident to you is moderately bothersome, but you're welcome to keep your head in the tech sand if it pleases you. Just don't be so trollishly confrontational about it.