&gt; The challenge was that around the time the iPhone launched, people did not believe the market was there yet, nor that the hardware was ready, largely because &quot;everyone else&quot; had a go too early, failed, and essentially shelved the idea for the next decade as something that was way too early.<p>&gt; What Apple got exactly right and everyone else messed up was the timing.<p>My [perhaps mistaken] understanding is that Apple had been working on it for a while; but rather than try before the hardware was ready, and shelve the idea, they kept working on the idea until the hardware caught up.  They had a solid idea of how it <i>should</i> work, and waited until it <i>could</i>, rather than have it just be a thing they tried and gave up on.