Third-Generation iPhone to get Multitasking?

by Eric March on February 4, 2009 at 2:13 am

It’s all starting to make sense, now.

When Apple first touted their forthcoming Push Notification Service as an alternative to the multitasking The Steve was so loath to support on the iPhone citing performance and battery life issues, we all figured, okay, fine, it’s better than nothing. At least we could still get IM, pish mail, and other such notifications. It was better than what we had then — which was bupkis.

Then the iPhone 3G’s arrival came and went. PNS? Not so much. Delayed. But then developers got a chance to play around with it a bit when it hit the SDK seeds and we thought, “Cool, it’s on the way.” And then it was rather unceremoniously yanked wholesale last August. The Steve said they were “running a bit late,” but set a September deadline to make sure they got it 100% right the first time. It has yet to make its grand reappearance in the SDK. It is now 6 months and three firmware revisions past the last time it was due to make its grand entrance, and we’ve heard nary a peep about it — much like cut & paste. Apple, as Apple is wont to do, has been completely stum about it.

Thus begins the rumour mongering, and MacRumors’ Arnold Kim makes a good argument for the possibility that the iPhone 3.0 firmware, which we will likely see during the spring/summer iPhone refresh, may just support multitasking, possible through the use of user-selectable background processes. Apparently, they’ve heard whispers that Apple is considering this as an alternative to PNS, and rumour has it that the next generation iPhone will feature more powerful hardware to better handle multitasking, while existing iPhones (and presumable iPod Touches) will support it on a smaller scale.

Taken as a whole, it does make sense. After this long without a single indication that PNS will ever make a return, it isn’t a stretch to think that maybe they’ve just abandoned the idea altogether. it’s a logical step from there to come to the conclusion that Apple needs to replace it with something, and the only other thing that makes sense is honest-to-goodness multitasking. After all, the public has been clamouring for it since the first-gen iPhone, and as history has shown, Apple does listen to their customers — even if they’ll grumble and wave their cane menacingly and exclaim that they’ll do it when they’re damn good and ready and not a minute sooner. Remember the debut of the “not a smartphone” iPhone two years ago? Remember how they said they wouldn’t allow third party development? Remember how they wouldn’t allow fart apps or apps that “duplicated functionality” (i.e. competed) like alternative web browsers and E-Mail programs?

Yeah. Apple says a lot of things in the name of trying to remain masters of their own domain, but at the end of the day, when enough people demand it, Apple remembers who keeps their lights on — plus, while hardly direct competition yet, there are latent yet significant threats in Android-based devices and the forthcoming Palm Pre. Multitasking is one of the last holdouts that’s keeping the iPhone from doing everything other smartphones have been doing for years now — that, and cut & paste. It makes a lot of sense for Apple to finally realize that while distant, they’re still competition, and the people want it, so it’s about high time they bit the bullet and got it done.

Fingers crossed.

(via MacRumors)

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