The iPhone was such a phenomenon that even the humble journalists chosen for an early look were thrust into a spotlight.
All through the 1980s, Apple kept its prices high. There were many reasons Microsoft's much bigger user base managed to resist moving to the GUI - but price was high among them.
Facebook takes it as a core truth that sharing and connecting is a force that will improve the world.
Since the iPhone, the most transformative products have not been gadgets but services. Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat have changed lives, but they didn't launch to massive fanfare.
For many years, when people described how the Internet worked - whether they were talking about shopping, communicating, or starting a business there - they inevitably invoked a single metaphor. The Internet, said just about everybody, was a contemporary incarnation of the wild, wild West.