it's hard to undersell how big a deal the ipod was 15 years ago. the iphone was introduced as an ipod first, a phone second, and an internet communicator third. until the app store launched, most of the ads were "it's an ipod that makes phone calls". and people expected the touch to be good because the click wheel was good
This. This is something that has been interesting to see sort of get mixed up in memory.
The struggling computer company first got into people's pockets with a device that played music (a key insight - people make emotional contact with media). That position then bought them the time to finance development of know-how around pocket computers in plain sight. And then finally when the timing was just right and nobody expected it, they basically leveraged that position to deliver that pocket computer to the masses.
