I had a Nokia n95 at the time. It also had superior hardware and a fully functional web browser. Yes the iPhone was attractive at the time but not initially a smartphone and certainly not the first
Both the n95 and original iPhone were widely considered to be smartphones at the time! Examples:
https://www.engadget.com/2006-09-26-nokias-n95-smartphone-go...
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/05/iphone-with-28-of-u-s-s...