[pyre]

  > If there was no innovation in bringing multi-touch to
  > smart phones, why wasn't everyone doing it in 2007 when
  > the iPhone was first released?

For starters, because Apple bought the company that invented multi-touch, therefore controlled the rights to the technology.

[pyre]

Further, Apple purchased them in April 2005, a little less than two years before they announced the iPhone (Jan 2007).