Rumor: iPhone OS 4.0 to Add Third Party Multitasking

According to AppleInsider, Apple is adding the ability for third parties to multitasking. They say no details are available, but its a “full-on” solution.

This is very exciting, as it will fix the biggest flaw of the OS right now. As AI points out, its not a technical problem, as many Apple apps (iPod, Messages, etc) run fine in the background. Its a political problem. The current arguments for it (battery and resource usage) are red-herrings, because they both apply to the Apple apps as well- and the decision to use them are up to the user.

I’m very interested in seeing how Apple manages this. I expect the home button to be the primary means of interacting, with only one third party app allowed to run. There will also be a requirement to have a menu bar icon to alert the user that there is an extra app being run.

Regardless of how its done, this is great news for the platform. Once less reason to use the Andriod platform. The next thing to change: unsigned apps.