iPhone hasn't updated the phone app since the iPhone launched it seems. Even before Blackberry, phones had functions like search recent calls/contacts while dialing. The phone app is the bare minimum in the iPhone and is sucks.
If you would have said iOS hasn't been updated since version 7 you'd be closer to right, but saying it hasn't changed since launch just isn't right.
At launch all of the apps were designed heuristically to mimic their real world counterparts in both form and function. The notepad app looked like a notebook with lines, etc. And apps didn't share the same design language. Each one had its own look, feel and flow based on how you would use a comparable object in the real world. It wasn't until iOS 7 and Jony Ive getting involved with the UI that iOS standardized. It was a major overhaul that pissed off a lot of people and also introduced the consistent design of Apple's OS line that we have today.