The hardware in the device is not exceptional - pretty much the same stuff in a regular WM device. The software’s where they planned on making a difference (screen to some extent as well).

They managed to pull it off with the iPod despite it being technologically stale, purely on looks - you mentioned clunky old mp3 players before that - strange that mine costed much less than the shuffle that was release a couple of years later, was slightly smaller, packed in a screen and microphone for use as a dictaphone, ran for 13 hours on a standard (or good rechargeable) AAA cell, had a standard full sized USB port and came with much higher quality headphones. Did I mention that it accepts standard SD cards?

They used marketing genius to sell old bones in new skins to (presumably) technology freaks. They’re trying again with the iPhone and after pulling all stops on the spin, don’t seem to be getting half as far as they did with the iPod. I think the mistake they made this time was pitching it to a fixed demographic too hard and not concentrating on the rest. They had folks camping outside shops thinking that since they wanted it so bad everyone else would. Everyone else did not. There’s no shortage of iPhones. There’s just a shortage of people willing to:
1. Invest that sort of money in a sub-standard carrier
2. Invest that sort of money in a device that they don’t know enough about.
3. Invest that sort of money in a device with no apps available for it at the moment.
When apps are released for it and the people are educated by the interface, clones of higher quality will appear without the same style or class or price. These clones will be snapped up by the masses and the snooty people will possess the technologically challenged iPhones.

You can probably tell I’m not really such a big fan of Apple any more (used to be - I grew up with a IIe clone that’s sitting in my basement and a desire to own a Mac - which I will even though they’ve defected to the dark side (Intel))

The interface on the iPod was always kickass - I didn’t like them conning people into buying the shuffles and I hated the fact that I have possibly one (single) friend who hadn’t had one problem or the other with the device due to a manufacturing defect or software issue.

I agree with the title though. Welcome Apple and Thank You! I’m so looking forward to multipoint touchscreen devices.

PS: Seems your bot filter didn’t pass parsing :)