It's way more about algorithmic improvements than hardware improvements though.
Deep Blue evaluated 200 million positions per second. I don't think top programs of today could get to 2 million positions per second on a smartphone (I get about 10 million pos/second on my i7 3770 quad). It's all about improvements in search algorithms as well as position evaluation.
True. Without hardware improvements the processors that can evaluate 2 million positions per second while 'fitting' into a phone (qua processing power and power usage) would not exist though.