Not only did the iPhone 9 never exist, the iPhone X was a huge paradigm shift in design and capabilities. That was the phone that introduced edge-to-edge OLED screens to the iPhone line, as well as the IR camera that enabled FaceID and the first generation of Portrait mode. I know it well since it also introduced the ability for developers to build facial motion capture apps that would’ve previously required expensive pro hardware and allowed people like me to build live facial motion capture effects for theatre.
Sorry to dunk so hard, but your example of technology stagnating is actually an example of breakthrough technological innovation deep into a product’s lifecycle: the very thing you were trying to say doesn’t happen.
The iPhone 1 featured "touch screen, GPS, camera, iPod, and internet access. Its software capabilities were a turning point for the smartphone industry" (random source: https://www.textline.com/blog/smartphone-history).
If you want to doubt that it was in fact a not a turning point you'd need to provide very strong arguments.
All of the things you mentioned were available in phones before the first iPhone (assuming by ipod you mean mp3 player). In fact from a software point of view it was lacking a bunch of functionality and software ecosystem some competitors had.
In my view the reason the iPhone felt so new was almost entirely the incredibly responsive capacitive touch screen with a finger ui, everything I'd used before it did resistive and preferred pen for detail. Pen actually is better for detail so in some ways it was that more than anything else that turned the device from a creation device to a consumption device which was whole new way of thinking about smart personal devices.
Of course it was also sold in a decent package too where Apple did deals that ensured it was available with good mobile internet plans which were also unusual at the time.
Also, the touchscreen was the type that unlike all previous touchscreens (except the ones made by a startup that Apple had bought)
could detect touches at more than one screen location simultaneously.
as someone who owned a number of smartphones and PDAs prior to the first iPhone coming out, the real advance was a usable mobile browser. i'd had all the same capabilities with devices for quite some time before the iphone came out, but their browsers were painful to use. the touch interface was also a big advance over previous touch interfaces. in other areas the first iphone was lacking compared to other smartphones.. copy and paste and 3rd party apps were missing for example.
technological advancements yes, but did it drastically changed how users (majority) use the iphone. I'd say marginally. Fancy selfie filters, ok i'll give it that. But edge to edge screens, meh, give me back my home button :D
Sorry to dunk so hard, but your example of technology stagnating is actually an example of breakthrough technological innovation deep into a product’s lifecycle: the very thing you were trying to say doesn’t happen.