It used to be national symbols, heroes and local leaders, cultural icons or historical landmarks. Now, you have the image of a mobile phone, modern refrigerator, flat-screen television, digital media player and Global Positioning System (GPS) in postage stamps. The innovative design was issued by Australia Post this week to "celebrate the technological revolution of the 21st century."

Every country has sought to represent its people, its history and national pride in postage stamps. "Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste,"  William Butler Yeats once said.

In a way, the newly released stamps is also reflection of modern day Australia. Technology and the Internet have changed transformed Australian economy in the last 10 years. A report released by Deloitte Access Economics last August showed that the Internet contributed AU$50 billion, or approximately 3.6 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010. In Ericsson's Networked Society Index, Sydney ranked 11 in the top 25 cities cited for ICT maturity.

"Businesses such as Australia Post continue to make use of technological advances to provide maximum convenience and choice for their customers. This stamp issue reflects on those advances and highlights the difference they make in our daily life", said  Australia Post Philatelic Manager,  Michael Zsolt, in a media release.

For a 200-year-old institution, Australia Post is most definitely in step with the times. Its portal is a dynamic website offering the latest web applications and tools such as online shopping, electronic bills payments, banking and remittance facility, currency converter, and real-time tracking of mails and parcels, among others. It also has mobile and smartphone apps and an active social media presence.

As a government business enterprise, Australia Post  is a commercially run business and  claims that  96.5 percent of parcels were delivered on time or early, while 99.3 percent  of Express Post items were delivered on time or early. In 2009-20120, it posted a total revenue of $4.87 billion.

The enterprise side of its operations offers services to businesses such as delivering documents and products, office supplies procurement, data management services, sending and receiving payments, and managing cash rewards and incentives, among others.

The "Technology - Then and Now" stamp collection, designed by Australian artist Stacey Zass, can be bought online or via mail order. Other latest stamps issues include the  2012 Year of the Dragon stamps issued before the Chinese New Year, and the 2012 Australian Legends of Football  released for Australia Day.

In choosing the five domestic rate stamps in the Technology-Then and Now issue, Australia Post said all five has revolutionized the Australian way of life. The mobile phone, allows  Australians to be connected globally, while the modern refrigerator, sometimes equipped with entertainment devices such as a high-definition LCD screen and FM radio, is no longer the same ice chest introduced over a century ago to keep food cool.

Flat-screen television sets are equally important in modern life as television transmission is now on 24 hours a day. The same is true for digital audio players (or MP3 players) and cars equipped with GPS for easy navigation.