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.