Before the iPhone there was only one series of phones in the same market that doesn't suck and that's the Palm Treo.
Thanks to the iPhone, everyone rushed to the touch screen smartphone market and now you don't have to be a rich business man to have a mini-computer in your pocket.
Look around you, Palm OS is dead, WinMo is dead, S60 is dead, PalmHP went to shit even with webOS, Nokia and MS trying to enter the game again with new OSes, even RIM want to have their cake and eat it too. Today someone looking to buy a touch screen smartphone have only two real choices: iPhone or Android phone. It did changed everything.