The last ten years have been defined by a truly global explosion of technology, especially in networking, entertainment, energy, and communications. Products like the iPod, iPhone, TiVo, and the rise of social networking, have influenced our lives to such an extent that they've become integral to the way we conduct business and interact collectively.

The Multimedia Player or MP3 Player began a steady climb in popularity in the beginning of the decade and has since cemented itself as a cultural and technological icon of the 2000s. This is most apparent in Apple's iPod, which released in October 2001, came to define an entire generation of music fans in the oncoming years. It's innovative, easy to use design combined with what has become a social status marker for the current generation has led to market domination since October 2004, with over 90 percent of the market for hard drive-based players and over 70 percent of the market for solid state memory players in the US. In tandem with this, the concept of the iTunes "playlist" has spread far from just music and entered the popular lexicon, while the cross-platform, web manager/store has literally shifted the music industry towards a purely digital format, leading to a huge decline in physical music formats. Together, the iPod and iTunes has become the successful model for the powerful interaction of hardware and software.

The mobile handset, which was put in general use as far back as the early 1980's, has developed into the most widespread technology on the planet, with mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide reaching approximately 4.6 billion by the end of 2009 according to the International Telecommunication Union. And while low end cell phones now effectively reach even some of the poorest consumers in the world, it is the idea of the "Smartphone" which has most shifted the ability for a handset to do more than make voice calls and sending text messages. This includes blurring the line between phone and laptop PC with a myriad of applications like GPS navigation, MP3 functions, video streaming, built-in cameras and camcorders, games, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and Internet web browsing. Ultimately, the explosion of mobile phones in the 2000's has created a truly mobile world culture that is more informed, connected, and culturally innovative than ever before. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Apple's iPhone, released in 2007. Much like the iPod becoming a status symbol for MP3 players, the iPhone altered the idea of mobile phone ownership. Consumers the world over have begun to identify themselves by and would rather own a new, stylish, and technologically advanced cell-phone verses the latest clothing fashion or state of the art computer. Additionally, the wireless capability, innovative touchscreen, and design as a sort of all-in-one media, networking, and information center has led to numerous imitators and has ushered in the era of 3G and (very soon) 4G.