> But my point was I don't think they changed the industry structure.
Right, I think it depends on what you mean by "industry". If you mean handsets, they've obviously completely disrupted it. Touch was not a mainstream interaction model for phones before the iPhone, the mobile software market qualitatively changed and continues to explode, phones were almost never updated after they were purchased, real web browsing wasn't really possible, etc.
If you mean carriers, the impact has been more limited. They have made extremely important inroads inasmuch as the iPhone turns the carrier into a dumb pipe. All iPhone owners have the same features regardless of carrier (with a few notable exceptions like AT&T customers getting MMS after every other market in every other country).
Right, I think it depends on what you mean by "industry". If you mean handsets, they've obviously completely disrupted it. Touch was not a mainstream interaction model for phones before the iPhone, the mobile software market qualitatively changed and continues to explode, phones were almost never updated after they were purchased, real web browsing wasn't really possible, etc.
If you mean carriers, the impact has been more limited. They have made extremely important inroads inasmuch as the iPhone turns the carrier into a dumb pipe. All iPhone owners have the same features regardless of carrier (with a few notable exceptions like AT&T customers getting MMS after every other market in every other country).