Why would you have to go that far back? The iPhone's predecessor is the Moto ROKR, a music phone from 2005 made in collaboration with Apple. The design of the 2007 iPhone is primarily influenced by the Dieter Rams-y minimalism of the iPod and the LG Prada touchscreen phone from 2006.
Because the Newton was Apple's first attempt at the handheld device that was clearly the precursor to the iPhone that was a failure. If you can't see the reason for the Newton reference, you're just not looking at it in the right way. Maybe try tilting your head and squinting
iPhone had over 10M users in year 2. AVP will have a couple hundred thousand users at the end of year 2. There's no polishing this turd, even hearkening back to other slow starts. This isn't a slow start to a ramp, it's hitting a brick wall with customers who simply don't want it, like Newton, like iPod HiFi, like original HomePod. It's a dud and the second year cannot fix that given Apple's tiny stock and almost non-existent demand for all of year 2.
