[TheCondor]

The entire mobile industry pre-iPhone?

This is and endless argument, you either acknowledge that they pushed it forward or you don't but there wasn't a significant application platform, touch was nearly nonexistent and even dismissed by RIM, and while many of these things might be dismissed as obvious, Apple made it stick and they beat the entire current crop of competitors to the market.

Everything is easy once you've seen it done...

Take the typical Nokia and Motorola device from 1997 and the typical one from the iPhone launch, biggest improvements? More SMS and the phones got a little bit smaller

[tetomb]

I agree that apple did bring it all together rather well (over a sustained marketing and development phase) but I just don't see how anyone could think that smart phones similar to those that we have today weren't inevitable with or without apple.

http://mobile.engadget.com/2006/02/21/review-cingular-8125/ This was released over a year before the first iphone.

I think that apple's contribution was not so much innovation as it was popularisation.

[panabee]

I don't think the argument is whether Apple pushed the industry forward. They absolutely did.

The question is, if they knew no patents would get awarded for software features like slide-to-lock or gesture control, would they still have introduced the iPhone?

I believe they would have, but it would be great to hear your thoughts if you disagree.