To me the primary answer was a fully functional web browser. the mobile web was extremely limited; I know, I used to use it on a windows pda device.

Wait, were you not there? Did you not see how much the world changed pre vs post iPhone? In 2007 some nerds failed to see the forest for the trees and bitched about MMS but we have 2 decades of hindsight so let’s not. Why are we having this discussion