Apple imitates Microsoft

Multitasking on the iPhone reminds me of Wolfpack, Microsoft's first dabble in the 'clustering' market. Wolfpack was a half-assed attempt that amounted to no more than failover. When one server blew, the other took over. There was no real load sharing - which I would class as part of the definition of clustering - and only two servers were involved. More of a marriage than a cluster. But marketed so well that few of the users realised that clustering had been 'redefined'.

The iPhone does at least show some elements of multitasking but only as far as music, GPS and VoIP apps are concerned but everything else freezes when a new app is selected. This is bad news for YouTube users. Switch away from YouTube and it stops working so you still have to stare at a blank screen until the video loads.

I would argue that this is not real multitasking because apps should continue to run in the background. Naturally, this would put a drain on the battery so, for real multitasking in a mobile phone, there should be the ability to chose  to freeze an app or run it in the background.

There is also the issue of apps not being modified for the new environment. Multitasking is not fully incorporated in the operating system so every app will have to be modified by the developers before freezing can be achieved.

The only hope is that, just as Wolfpack evolved to be a true clustering technology, iPhone multitasking will improve over time. As it stands, I would give Apple 2/10 for effort.