There was never any moment where the iPhone was a fart app novelty. It was immediately and obviously wildly better and more useful than every phone than came before it.
You may have had more vision than others, because I definitely remember the fart app and the tip-to-pour-a-beer-app and people just kind of laughing at them. I'm not saying that stage lasted a long time, but that was what I saw of it in the very early days.