Apple is working on implementing multitasking support — the ability to run more than one app at once — for the iPhone’s operating system this summer, according to AppleInsider. It’s said to be a major new feature in the next version of the iPhone’s OS, version 4.o.
The information comes from trusted sources who have a history of accurately predicting Apple’s new technologies. They don’t offer many specifics, but they say that Apple has already developed a “full-on solution” to the iPhone’s multitasking limitation. If true, the news means that multitasking will soon become a reality not only for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but for the iPad as well. It would also put to rest longstanding criticism of Apple’s mobile operating system.
Apple has historically prevented third-party apps from running in the background of the iPhone’s OS for security, battery, and performance reasons. It’s unclear how the company has gotten around these issues, but it’s likely that hardware upgrades in the next-generation iPhone, including a faster processor and more memory, will ease the burden for battery and performance issues. If Apple ends up relying on that new hardware too much though, existing iPhone owners won’t see the feature — but I don’t think that’s very likely.
Apple also needs to come up with a method for juggling multiple applications on the iPhone’s interface. Palm’s Web OS platform uses a card-based interface for multitasking (similar to how Safari handles multiple tabs on the iPhone), so Apple may end up going with something along those lines. I don’t suspect that we’ll see anything resembling Mac OSX’s Dock — which is more suited to a desktop user-interface, instead of a mobile one.
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Multitasking has been rumored to appear on the iPhone since last year, and the notion of it appearing in OS 4.0 isn’t exactly new. Now, as we creep closer to OS 4.0’s release, it’s beginning to seem more fact than fiction.
