Sometimes it takes a few tries before they get it right, the iPhone also wasn’t the first touch based screen only phone.

It wasn't? What were the other ones?

IBM Simon was the first in 1994: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Simon

I had a Sony Ericsson p900 a few years before the iPhone, it had a small keyboard you’d usually flip out of the way to get a full screen touch display: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Ericsson_P900

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada for example. It looks pretty much like iPhone — no keyboard, just touchscreen. But it did not really "spark joy" (I had one), so it wasn't a big success unlike iPhone.

Thanks for posting that, I didn't remember that one. That's one of the only ones I would consider a "true" predecessor to the iPhone - as you say, capacitive touchscreen and no keyboard. Other ones that have a touchscreen but also a number keypad or something like a slideout/flip keyboard are just not ones I would consider in the same category.

I'd day the whole VR movement that played out and then died in the 90's was more than a few tries already. And two decades later still nothing society-altering. I guess I don't think the iPhone comparison is an accurate one.