The iPod Touch (stylized and marketed as lowercase iPod touch) is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line. It is the first iPod with wireless access to the iTunes Store, and also has access to Apple's App Store, enabling content to be purchased and downloaded directly on the device. As of March 2011, Apple has sold over 60 million iPod Touch units.

The iPod Touch runs iOS. The first major update after the initial release was iPhone OS 2.0 This update introduced the App Store, which allowed third-party applications for the first time. iPhone OS 2.0 debuted July 11, 2008. iPhone users received the update for free, while iPod Touch users had to pay for the update. The second major update to the operating system, iPhone OS 3.0, was released June 17, 2009. iPhone OS 3.0 added features such as cut, copy, and paste; data tethering; and push notification support. As with the prior major release, iPhone users received the update for free, while iPod Touch users had to pay for the update. iOS 4.0 was made available to the public on June 21, 2010. It was the first major iOS release to drop support for some devices; the first generation iPod Touch and original iPhone are not supported in iOS 4.0. The iPhone 3G and second generation iPod Touch had limited functionality under iOS 4.0, while the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, third generation iPod Touch, and fourth generation iPod Touch had full functionality under iOS 4.0. The major features introduced in iOS 4.0 included iBooks, FaceTime, and multitasking. iOS 5.0 was previewed to the public on June 6, 2011, and was released on October 12, 2011.

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (/ˈdʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. During this period he also led efforts that would begin the desktop publishing revolution, notably through the introduction of the LaserWriter and the associated PageMaker software.