Also, the iPhone followed a long period of complacence in the smartphone market, where there was no real innovation at all for years. As such, it was perceived as revolutionary. But it pushed other smartphone makers to actually improve their products, and we're just now starting to see the results of that.

I think Tony's comparison to game consoles is quite valid. We'd been at the tail of the previous generation for a long time. It's not terribly surprising that the first in the new generation sells well (especially considering Apple's marketing prowess). We'll have to wait and see if it can retain its smartphone market share once other units of the same generation really start reaching market.

(Remember how dominant the Dreamcast was until the PS2 his the market? Remember how quickly Sega completely left the market after that? I'm not saying that Apple will do the same thing, but, rather, that we don't know what will happen with the competition until the competition actually appears.)