The iPhone had 60 fps smooth animations, a built-in iPod, a huge capacitive touchscreen, and most importantly none of the baggage of being associated with balding managers in their 40s. It was sexy. It was a fashion statement.
There wasn’t even an AppStore on iOS initially.
While true, I wouldn't say that's a burn because it was exactly those people who could afford smartphones and justify paying the painfully high bandwidth charges of that era. Remember, those phones cost as much as a iPhone today but in 2005 dollars (ouch). The ubiquitous Blackberry, a.k.a. the "Crackberry", and Palm devices were also aimed at the same business and professional market.
These early devices paved the way to the current smartphone market.
Ouch, burn. Though oldschool cubicles sound better than the current open office chicken farms I've seen.
But it's ok, they give you a ping pong and foosball table. /s
I owned two of these devices as a personal information manager (contacts calendar ...). They were not comfortable and the data plans then were so prohibitive expensive that modern usage was far away.
Regards the argument: if you do not win this audience (predominantly female) you are doomed.
For the records: I do not want to attribute any positive or negative characteristics to any of the audiences.