[Xuzz]

I can't agree with more than the first few lines of the grandparent comment (as it is, as you say, "pure fanboyism"), but there is a point there. Nothing — nothing — before the iPhone had anything similar to it's UI. Not Palm OS, not Windows Mobile, not (in-development) Android, not even any research prototypes. The iPhone was new.

But "wallpaper", "copy and paste", and even "live wallpaper" are not new. Physics-based scrolling responding to touch input as if it was actual physical objects you're manipulating? That was new. Android's innovating (and not at all bad) notifications interface? That's new, although it's not quite at the same scale.

But it's hard to argue that Apple did not make serious progress in computing as a whole with the iPhone. Even if you believe that Android (and webOS, Windows Phone, etc) should be able to use some of those same elements, or if you believe that Apple shouldn't be able to patent them.