

The iPhone features a touch-sensitive flat screen that serves as the interface for its operating system. This year will also see the launch in Australia of the latest offering in this line of products – the iPhone – which incorporates the popular MP3 player in an advanced mobile phone. Beer had only previously surpassed in popularity once before, in 1997, by the Internet (Zeff). In 2006 iPods were rated as more popular than beer amongst college students in the United States, according to Student Monitor. However it was not until April 2003 when Apple Inc launched the iPod that the market began the massive growth that has made the devices almost ubiquitous in everyday life. MPMan F10, the first such device to utilise the MP3-encoding format, was launched in March 1998 (Smith). Introduction This year, 2008, marks the tenth anniversary of the portable MP3 player.
