It was more than that, though. It really pays to watch Steve's introduction of the iPhone in detail, and recall how utter crap "smartphones" were back then, and how innovative the iPhone was.
For example:
* Multitouch/Scrolling. Yes, other phones had touch screens, but they often relied on pen, and mimicked traditional desktop OSes. To scroll, you had to press the little triangle on the bottom or top of the scrollbar. In the presentation, Steve has to explain how to scroll through the contact list by, well, just flicking through it - that was a new gesture back then. Similarly, pinch to zoom in/out was a new thing.
* Fully featured web browser. You basically couldn't browse the web on a smartphone back then, period. There was this protocol for mobile web, WAP, but it was crap and not widely available anyways.
* Syncing. There were decent PDAs, but integration with the desktop (contacts, calendar) was mediocre. When someone had a phone lost or stolen, you'd get these emails "Please text me your phone numbers again". And, as with the iPod before, you could trivially sync your music/photos/etc. via iTunes.