Apple showed the world that a smartphone that was enjoyable to use was possible.

I know it's hard to remember today, but in 2007, Apple was still the perennially-"beleaguered" underdog whose only big success story in marketshare terms was the iPod.

If the public had not loved the iPhone, it never could have "normalized" anything.

There are definitely aspects of the iPhone that it is fair to criticize Apple for. The rest of the world's wholesale embrace of its design—to the point of slavishly copying it, for several manufacturers at different points in time—can only be blamed on their lack of imagination and willingness to take risks, and on the public's unwillingness to give up the benefits of the iPhone just to get the much-less-obvious benefits of something more "open" or different.