As someone who had been using smartphones long before the iPhone (Windows Mobile, Treos etc), I think the iPhone was the first iteration of what is commonly viewed by a large market as a smartphone. Rich user interaction via a large capacitive touchscreen.
That's not knocking the pre-iPhone smartphones, but conceptually they were very, very different devices with very different aims, the iPhone moved the definition of a smartphone.
The mob is fickle and they're usually wrong about the facts.
The first iPhone didn't even have apps like the smartphones that came before it. That's not modern. They didn't have the first touchscreen on a phone. Apple has very good marketing and that goes a long, long way when it comes to dealing with the mob.
That's not knocking the pre-iPhone smartphones, but conceptually they were very, very different devices with very different aims, the iPhone moved the definition of a smartphone.