Up until Apple released the iPhone all other mobile telephone producers had come to an understanding that improvements in technology would be held back, releasing one or two improvements a year.
Apple release once per year. What they did have was more user friendly software. But HTC phones, which I notice you seem completely unaware of, were pretty much on par with the Apple and much better in several respects.
Apple are a marketing and consumer design company, their legion of fans will buy anything they produce which gives them an advantage as they know they can get the volume.
Of course if you are utterly unaware of developments in mobile phones and first heard of smartphones when Apple released their products it must have been like white man invading America. It isn't magic.