The iPad was a global product with an existing application base from launch. The first iPhones were geographically (and operator) limited and didn't even support 3rd party apps.
Are you sure? I thought that the first iPhone was only sold by AT&T in the US at least initially?
I'm pretty sure that they weren't sold outside the US at least to start with.
Wikipedia says this[0]:
Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.[34] The two initial models, a 4 GB model priced at US$ 499 and an 8 GB model at US$ 599, went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time, while hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide.[35] The passionate reaction to the launch of the iPhone resulted in sections of the media dubbing it the 'Jesus phone'.[36][37] Following this successful release in the US, the first generation iPhone was made available in the UK, France, and Germany in November 2007, and Ireland and Austria in the spring of 2008.
On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G in twenty-two countries, including the original six.[38] Apple released the iPhone 3G in upwards of eighty countries and territories.[39] Apple announced the iPhone 3GS on June 8, 2009, along with plans to release it later in June, July, and August, starting with the US, Canada and major European countries on June 19.
