The N95 sold well and was a solid great phone for the time.

However, the Nokia N95 suffered from a small screen 2.6 inches relative to the iPhone’s 3.5 inch display. It mostly sucked for web browsing, which seemed less import because all phones sucked for web browsing.

What separated the iPhone was a useful touch screen enabling large screens, an acceptable web browser even if it lacked flash etc, and an unlimited bandwidth option. If anything it was really bandwidth that changed how people used their phone.

The N95 and the iphone both sucked for web browsing. Websites just weren't made for small screens, you had to zoom in so far and links were hard to click. I wouldn't say the iPhone's browsing experience was any better than the rest, but perhaps that unlimited data plan (not bandwidth) changed things up.

In the iPhone's defense, vs the other smart phones I had used up until I got my iPhone 4, it was the first one to have a web browser that worked reasonably well on all non-mobile websites, and it was that factor alone at the time was enough to get me hooked.

I would argue that tap to zoom on desktop sites on the iPhone worked better than most “mobile optimized” sites.

along with reader mode, and a vertically integrated rendering engine

And don't forget iPhone lacked MMS on release and almost a year or two after if I remember correctly

Unexpectedly, MMS was so crappy at the time and full of spam that it was actually a feature for me. Total count of legit MMS I ever received was half a dozen, and again half of that that I sent.

(I did not own an iPhone 1, only a 3G one, but I skipped on MMS as hard as I could)