Apple already had the mobile audio players market sewn up with the iPod, and moved its seamless music-playing ecosystem lock, stock and barrel from 'Pod to 'Phone. iPhone web browsing was a world beyond that experienced on other handsets, and the original iPhone introduced Visual Voicemail, multitouch gestures, HTML email, threaded text messaging and YouTube video. Indeed, even 'missing' functions such as cut and paste, push email and multimedia messages made it on to the iPhone after a couple of software updates.

And that's before we get to Apps. Apple's App Store is the home to a staggering array of software services, and it all started with this device.

Look around now and you'll see smartphones of all flavours that resemble the original iPhone. The principal innovation the iPhone brought to the world was its use of multitouch input. It's strange to recall that many sage observers at the time Steve Jobs announced the iPhone thought it couldn't succeed without a hardware keyboard. The iPhone had then, and retains now, only a handful of hardware buttons -- and now RIM is increasingly isolated in including qwerty keyboards on its BlackBerry mobile devices.

In our , we were surprisingly equivocal about what became an outstanding success. We didn't write it off, by any means, but expressed some reservations, mainly related to the contract pricing.

"There's plenty to love, and plenty to lament about Apple's new mobile. With its solid design and a beautiful, touch-sensitive 480 x 320-pixel screen the iPhone is beautiful to look at and a joy to use. Its browser, while not as versatile as the one on a desktop or laptop, is impressive and - at a stroke - has made all other mobile internet devices look antiquated and woeful. And of course, it works fine for making phone calls.