Sorry guys, I really meant "grid of icons" in the iPhone touch screen sense. Basically since the iPhone it has been the only way to display apps. I don't think saying that is "patently ridiculous"
If you think of the grid design, what it basically says, visually is that all apps are of equal importance. Which is weird, when you think about it. Surely on a phone, ringing someone is a more important task than , say , Settings, yet the grid style (whether Apples or indeed a Symbian KHTML based) says they're of equal importance
I'd say that Apple's grid style does place a higher importance on essential apps: The phone, mail, Safari and iPod icons are not only in a special highlighted region at the bottom, but never scroll away no matter what page of apps you're navigating to.
And you can edit which apps show up here - I, for example, almost never make outgoing calls on my phone - at least, compared to previous phones. I don't know if that says something about me.. or if it attests to the saneness of the iPhone's SMS app.
It's not because the iPhone made it the default that they pioneered it. I believe the OpenMoko had this interface, most windows mobile phones had this style, Android look like this since the beginning.
If you think of the grid design, what it basically says, visually is that all apps are of equal importance. Which is weird, when you think about it. Surely on a phone, ringing someone is a more important task than , say , Settings, yet the grid style (whether Apples or indeed a Symbian KHTML based) says they're of equal importance