Report: Apple To Add Multi-Tasking In iPhone 4.0

Apple this summer will include multitasking in its iPhone 4.0 update, which will allow several third party apps to run at the same time as well as in the background, according to a Thursday AppleInsider report.

AppleInsider quoted sources with a "proven track record in predicting Apple's technological advances," but didn't specify how the update would deal with two of the biggest issues associated with multitasking: battery life and performance.

Multitasking would be welcomed by many iPhone users, but Michael Oh, president of Boston-based Apple reseller Tech Superpowers, doesn't think it's really that important. While the feature would be useful for running apps like Pandora in the background, Oh says users don't need multitasking for looking up restaurants, movie times or news reports.

For iPhone developers, the trick has been to build apps that 'remember' what users were doing when they closed the apps, which makes it look like the app was running in the background the whole time when it's restarted.

"Apple doesn't really need multitasking for the iPhone to be competitive, but the perception is that competitors are going to be pushing multitasking as a feature," said Oh. "The time is about right for Apple to cave on this -- unless there is radically new hardware, the iPhone feels like it is losing ground and staying still," says Michael Oh.

While other smartphones like the Motorola Droid support multi-tasking, the feature comes with a heavy impact on battery life and performance, and this could be one reason why it has taken Apple so long to include it.

Commenters on Macrumors.com greeted the rumors with lukewarm enthusiasm. "Never missed multitasking, and probably won't use it when it arrives," wrote one forum poster. "I wonder what the iPhone/iPad haters will move on to as their primary complaint if this is true?" wrote another poster.