It is true that many of these features have been in various other platforms in some form or function for ages. The iPhone however didn't start life as a Palm III, or Windows Mobile phone, so Apple has had to build this functionality up. The clearly had a list of features they wanted, worked on them, then released the first iPhone. Some people bought it, and were happy with what it could do, thus returning cash back to Apple to invest in further work. They then iterated, released 2.0 and the iPhone 3G, and many more people bought it. And now the cycle continues. This is really no different then how any other company does things, including the device that started this community. 1.0 worked and the Mark 1 was a good start. 2.0 added a lot, along with the Mark 2 hardware.

The alternative would have been for Apple to hold on to all this tech, build everything in so some web site could show 500 checkboxes checked, and released it sometime in 2013.