Quote:
Originally Posted by Pastiche
What is the reason for a lack of multi tasking in most of these devices? Is it a technical issue?
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There is multitasking on the iPhone in a way and will be on Series Seven phones as well ie, you can listen to music while you surf the web or play a game. The problem with full blown multitasking is there is limited resources on a mobile phone and it is difficult to provide a user with a way to know which applications are shut down vs still running in the background. You would need some application killer which makes for a not so nice user experience. On a desktop it works well because it is very clear which applications are running and which ones are not.
If a user goes and launches a whole bunch of apps and the phone starts to bog down or crash, it is much less of an acceptable user experience on a mobile device. Basic phone functionality should not be compromised by cowbell, fart machine, streaming radio, solitaire apps. Because Apple and Microsoft can't control 3rd party App code, they can't afford to allow it to crash phones when your trying to call a cab at 3 in the morning.