Based on the comment saying
Can’t have it in the office.
I don’t think this is a troll. I think OP works in a high-security setting, or around extremely sensitive equipment. I’m leaning toward the latter because I wouldn’t expect an SD card to be allowed in a high-security setting.
The multitouch-only UI was the big thing that made the iPhone stand out from Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Palm was already on the decline. Android was intended to lean heavily on physical controls at the time, but was well on the way to release.
Several companies were already working on multitouch UIs, including Microsoft, Samsung, Mitsubishi, and startups like JazzMutant and Fingerworks; Apple bought Fingerworks. If Apple hadn’t, Microsoft probably would have been the first to add it to a phone OS, perhaps with Samsung as a hardware partner.
Other factors that contributed to the smartphone as we know it today include good enough cameras, 3G (enough bandwidth for the web), 4G (enough bandwidth for video), and falling prices on all of it.
A multitouch phone with native third-party apps, a decent browser, good camera, and fast networking was absolutely on the horizon by 2007. The iPhone certainly accelerated things, but there’s a reason Apple rushed to demo barely functional prototypes and released it without 3G.
Windows Mobile was already commercially available in phones when the iPhone came out. Android was well on its way.
Both changed in response to the iPhone, but I think evolution would have led to a similar place without it. Trends like the loss of physical keyboards were driven by improvements to capacitive touchscreens.
Facebook was a mostly-harmless multimedia blog site before smartphones. Both its addiction algorithm and being in everyone’s pocket contribute to its current harms, but both would have happened even if Apple hadn’t made a phone.
Smartphones resembling what we have now would have come out of a likely Windows/Android rivalry. They might even still have headphone jacks.
Any time I’m required to use an app for something that could be a website, I leave the app a one star review.
Contributing to that Kinderficker changes my opinion of Publix.
I have a friend who occasionally works in a SCIF. My impression is that a radio receiver would probably be allowed, but an SD card would not. That’s what makes me suspect it has to do with sensitive equipment, though I’d be a little surprised any electronic equipment not explicitly vetted is allowed in that situation.