Apple’s iPod has long since been THE MP3 player to have. The name has become synonymous with digital music and everyone interested in music on the go either owns, or has at least considered owning one.

However Apple recently skipped on a few paces with the release of the iPhone, a touch pad iPod mixed with a mobile phone. The iPhone is more of a personal computer than an iPod, capable of browsing the web, sending emails, taking photos, making phone calls and yes, even playing digital music.

But will the iPhone spark an end to the common MP3 player? The type of technology that plays music, and only plays music?

Hailed by many, including ‘The Gadget Show’, and the best piece of technology of the year the iPhone was released to great praise and huge public demand, yet its saturation hasn’t quite reached the levels of the iPod. Nor in fact has it proved as popular as other mobile handsets such as the Sony Walkman range, or Nokia’s impressive N-95.

No, what is really holding the iPhone back, despite the hefty price tag of course, is the fact that the handset itself is tied in to O2, when a great many potential customers are already involved in contracts with other network providers such as Vodafone and Orange.

Remarkable piece of kit that the iPhone is, for it to truly be successful in the UK and to reach the kind of saturation levels that the iPod has enjoyed, it surely must be opened up to be cross network compatible.