The only real touch based "smartphone" that was released in the 1990s was IBMs Simon Personal Communicator. You seem to be confusing smartphones with PDAs. Palm released the first PDA/phone hybrid in 2001 and to call it a touch based smartphone is a stretch. Ditto any of the Windows Mobile based devices that were around at the time. All the stylus based devices had interface elements that were based around that. The iPhone changed the game, like it or not. As the author noted, the LG Prada existed, but it was goddamned awful.