Oh, was this because of limited processing power / slow secondary storage read speeds?

That and we hadn’t settled on standards nearly to the degree we have now. Much like charging cables it was the wild West for some shit out there. Also, many phones actually did support MIDI, but most normal users didn’t know what to do with it lol

Oof that must’ve been so annoying, no? Ur phone being a waking advertisement to everyone around you?

Back then it was status. “Look at me, I have an IPHOOOOONEEEEE”