This morning, after many months of rampant speculation over the enigmatic Tablet, Apple officially invited scores of press to a special media event to be held January 27. The debut of the Tablet seems all but a given according to most reports, but there are some secondary announcements that also stand to be huge — especially the rumors that we may also see the launch of iPhone 4.0. This afternoon, Fox News “confirmed” that we’d being seeing the latest iteration of Apple’s hugely popular mobile OS for the first time. Should that be the case, there’s also a good chance we’ll see launch of a very important new feature: background applications.
First things first. While the title of the Fox News article is “Apple Tablet, iPhone 4 Launch Confirmed for January 27″, the body of the article later says that it’s “likely” that Apple will unveil those two products (along with an updated iLife suite), and also notes that Apple is known for suddenly removing features or products from their announcements at the last second — none of which makes the news sound totally concrete. That said, there are plenty of reasons why iPhone 4.0 could be making an appearance alongside the Tablet, and why it will bring background apps with it.
We’ve discussed the probable connection between the Tablet and the iPhone OS since as early as last May. With iPhone OS, Apple took Mac OS X and stripped it down to the basics to turn it into a compact and powerful mobile operating system. The tablet will almost certainly have more horsepower than the iPhone, but it would still stand to gain from the power and space saving attributes of the mobile OS (albeit a modified version). Our suspicions got further support less than a week ago, when we saw reports that the newest releases of the iPhone OS was actually being held back because some of its code alluded to the unannounced tablet device. Given these ties, it would be logical for the iPhone 4.0 OS to make its debut alongside the tablet.
But the Tablet OS will need to bring some new features with it. For one, it will probably need to allow users to run multiple apps at the same time. Most people don’t particularly care (yet) that they can’t do this with their iPhones, because the screen real estate is so limited and they don’t view the device as a handheld computer (even though it is one). But that won’t be true with the tablet — in light of its larger screen, users will expect more functionality, and the inability to run multiple apps would grow frustrating quickly. With that in mind, if Apple has already established a paradigm for running background apps on the tablet, it would make sense to finally bring it over to the iPhone too.
The iPhone’s current lack of background applications is one of its most glaring weaknesses compared to other mobile operating systems, most notably Android and Palm’s WebOS. Apple’s reasons for withholding the functionality before now were obvious: running multiple applications can drain the device’s already-strained battery more quickly, and forcing users to manage which apps are open adds an extra layer of complexity. It was the right choice then, but it’s time for things to change.
Plenty of developers have already had their applications hampered by their inability to run in the background. Messaging clients have to rely on the iPhone’s Push notifications, which can only display a single alert at a time. Music players (other than the built-in iPod app) close down as soon as you try to do anything else on the phone. And location based apps have to rely almost exclusively on the “check-in” model popularized by Foursquare, because they have no way to passively monitor your location. Consumers may not be frustrated by these restrictions yet, but it’s only a matter of time before they look enviously at their Android-toting friends streaming Pandora and running Skype or Meebo in the background.
And Apple knows it. As far back as last May we were hearing that Apple was having serious discussions about how to implement background applications. As it did with copy and paste (which iPhone users had to wait years for), Apple is clearly taking its time to get it right the first time. Now, with the imminent release of the tablet, Apple may have finally settled on a solution. If the Fox News report is correct, that could be revealed as soon as next week. But even if iPhone 4.0 isn’t announced for a few more months, it seems highly likely that background apps will come with it.
Image via Gizmodo. And no, it isn’t real.
That’s really interesting stuff, but it’s not news. The line between news and speculation has become so blurred that we are being trained to view speculation of news as the same thing as news. We’re in such a rush to “break” news that we “break” rumor and speculation just to be first.
It’s a lack of self-control. A little concerning.
“The iPhone’s current lack of background applications is one of its most glaring weaknesses ”
That line explain almost all of the article. As for the date, It’ll be like the D Day for Apple’s unicorn-like gadgets. I guess some of us will be there to be wowed and at the same time scrutinize
“what does the Apple Tablet really has to offer for us, users?” iPhone 4G, Apple Tablet and iLife details: http://bit.ly/iphone-4g-apple-tablet-details
As they say, “expect the unexpected”.
Is this the leaded iPhone 4.0 demo you are talking about?
http://bit.ly/iphoneos4
I disagree. I for one am interested in the rumors that tech-experts here. It is interesting to hear what they think might happen, and as long as they don’t present it as hard facts, what’s the problem? They let you know it is based on speculation in the article, they tell you their reasoning behind the speculation, and they just want to let you in on the ‘buzz’. I think that’s cool, I like to hear the buzz from people who are much more connected in the world of tech stuff than I am.
TC let’s you in on the factual news, AND the rumors and buzz surrounding upcoming news. I think that’s really cool.
Woops, typo, first line: here=hear
How hard is it to implement background apps? Look up Backgrounder in Cydia, get a hold of the developer, and offer some cash for his code.
Nobody said it would be HARD to implement, just perhaps not WISE.
iPhone is based on Mac OSX, a modern, fully multi-tasking operating system. The iPhone already does multitasking… ie running iPod in the background. They just haven’t allowed it for 3rd party apps.
The Answer is just NO .
Indiscriminated background apps will not happen on the iPhone (al least for a long long time).
Why ? If instead of clueless speculations we take an Engeenering as well an User perspective you get to this answer easily.
Background means that 1 or more app waste , memory and power to ….. WAIT !!!!!!!!!!!!
Apple’s Push Notification system is pure GENIUS , what we really need is just to add it :
1) a PULL Notification of GPS position and User Status (online, offline, busy,..)
2) an Application Session storage to restart one app from the point where you stopped it last time.
Instead of having 10 apps in Bakground wasting resources just to communicate your position or status to 10 Services, we let iPhone OS to do that once for all.
Battery Life is much more important for the User Experience that Applications in background.
I hope Apple will improve power management in iPhone OS 4.0 and not add crazy background Apps .
And please TC’s Jason : don’t even try to spaoke positively of Android in an iPhone rumor…. it’s pathetic .
iPhone users will never envy Android one for 2 reasons
1)Android is year behind iPhone OS 2.0 nto even try a comparison with 3.0 or 4.0
2) There are NO Android phones users around. Please find one outside TC’s redaction or outside Google Plex. Good luck…
You are officially moron.
Official because you are the King of Morons and can give such title to anybody ?
I honored my King !
Grow up.
I wish they could just give people a choice. But it’s Apple and as always, “Jobs knows best” right? I like the notification system, saves battery, etc. I like your idea of a session resume also, but what about the ever present problem of texting, web surfing, etc. while using Pandora, Facebook, playing a game, etc. At least allow the Apple apps to background. That’s one thing that Google saw was a problem, and addressed beautifully. I agree, Android is iPhone OS 2.0 or slightly lower, but, I can also see great potential. And they have the luxury of seeing Apple’s mistakes and using their closed door approach against them. To say the least, these next few years in mobile phones are looking to be exciting.
As an android user (motodroid) I can tell you that running apps simultaneously is a definite plus in user experience. It does add a small level of complexity because once every day or two you do need to manage apps, but it is awfully easy and quick to do. I travel via car for business regularly so running the turn by turn and Pandora at the same time is a regular thing. Being able to do so while responding to emails and texts or surfing the web without an interruption in anything has been pretty essential. As far as battery life is concerned, I have never had a problem. I have never needed to recharge outside of bedtime.
Managing power usage is also a snap thanks to a power manager widget I use. You can turn things like blue tooth, wifi, and gps on or off via a program running on one of the home pages. There is no need to open an app. The ability to run programs on the homescreen is also nice for things like the weather and Pandora.
Add to that the ability to create file folders for your apps and you have an ability to customize your experience that makes a daily difference. That flexibility is the primary reason why I chose the droid after a fairly extensive research process. I am sure that Apple will address a lot of that with 4.0, but at the time of purchase the iphone was simply not the most attractive option for my needs/wants. Please do not take this as an iphone diss. It is a phenomenal piece of technology. But to claim that the iphone is inherently superior in every way is just not true.
Blackberry phones have been doing it perfectly for ages.
Solution for Pandora / Spotify addicted :
as you maybe know iPhone OS has some software layers that correspond to some core services like : data persistence, connectivity , media (music) etc…. Such services run in background and are actually used by Apple apps like the iPod one. If Apple open the access to such background services to other Apps, Pandora could continue to play your music in background delegating the duty to the media service… The problem appears when you give this opportunity to any App because we are in democracy (more or less) and you start saturating or overloading the OS… ending to kill your user experience with slow apps, fast battery consumption and crashes.
But if you like the freedom to push your hardware to its limits and continuously accepting a trade-off between battery, speed and number of running apps, I respect this choice.
Anyway the solution for Radio addicted is coming in iPhone OS 4.0 …. FM radio for all ;-D !!!
Hell yes, I asked for location notification to be shoved into the cloud at WWDC 2 years ago.
I think developers have missed the boat. Instead of whining about not being able to background twitter monitors, figure out how to persist your application state into the cloud and continue execution there.
Think QuakeWorld, not Firefox.
The only thing I can think of that it wouldn’t work for would be music players.
Apple’s push notifications pure genius? They are an awkward work-around for something other modern smartphone OS’s do effortlessly.
Android may not be as pretty as iPhone OS (I’m sure that’s a dealbreaker for some), but to call it “behind iPhone OS 2.0″, which didn’t even have copy/paste or push notifications is a preposterous and obtuse opinion.
Your “iPhone is better than anything out there and nothing will ever catch up ever!!!!111oneuno” attitude pretty much clears up how narrow-minded and ignorant you are regarding software.
Make no mistake, Apple could’ve done many of these things since the beginning: Copy/paste, push notifications, third party native apps, multi-tasking.
But like they do with all their other products, they choose to do incremental updates every year, adding those obvious things one iteration at a time, to get to buy their product because it’s “new”.
There, got my pointless (pointless because you, being a fanboy, will take none of it in consideration) rant out of my chest.
If they enable background processing, I can finally listen to music with Spotify while surfing the web.
you got it!!!
Why not listen to your iPod music while surfing the web? The iPod app plays in the background on an iPhone just fine.
You could also drink Apple Kool-Aid whilst surfing the web with Apple Safari and listening to your Apple iTunes bought music.
Some people like choice, alas with Apple there usually isn’t much.
people only want choice when what’s offered sucks.
No. I want choice regardless of an acceptable experience. I want to say, “Firefox is a feature-complete, stable and secury browser, but I’m going with Chrome for its speed and simplicity” .
Since no one experience is perfect, there will always be alternatives that do things differently. That being said, if you don’t want choice, you’re right at home in planet Apple.
Well, let’s see…if you try to listen to music with Spotify while surfing the web you’re going to complain about the music quality in Spotify while it competes for bandwidth with Safari.
Backgrounding apps is nothing to do with screen real estate it’s about being able to download data in the background as per the email app.
Twitter, IM, skype etc are severely limited on IPhone without the ability to fetch data in the background.
It’s not so much screen real estate that makes background apps technically possible. It’s that users will probably expect the ability to run background apps, because this will look more like a portable computer monitor than a phone.
Jan 27 is definitely going to be an exciting day, can’t wait
Ah, Fox “News” – the shining beacon of reliable tech news. Confirmed, my *ss.
Seriously: The one thing I want to know at this point (and which, surprisingly, is not even discussed on most sites) is what OS we’ll see on this fabled tablet.
If it’s OS X (even in a stripped-down or customized version), we’ll be able to run all our beloved Mac apps from the couch, on the train, in a cafe. iPhoto, Keynote, VLC, GarageBand; surfing, communication, productivity, heck, even playing the one or two games that supposedly exist for the Mac: It’ll be wonderful. Here’s my money, Steve.
If, OTOH, it’s the iPhone’s OS (which seems more likely each day), we’ll be able to run a bazillion one-trick-pony apps, most of which will not benefit from the huge screen. And while having a nice, GPS-enabled phone with three dozen of those single-purpose apps makes a lot of sense, I don’t see myself spending $1000 on a mid-size machine that at the end of the day will just be a bigger flea circus. It’s still the same fleas.
Anyway. At this point, I just want Apple to present something – anything, so we can return to our normal lives. This black hole of attention to a product that hasn’t even been announced is getting surreal.
+ 1
+1,000
-1000
How is that hope and change working out? LOL
It’s working out just dandy. I’m much better off than I was a year ago. I take it your not.
This isn’t about politics but rather how citing Fox News for tech doesn’t really work. Particularly, in the case of Apple, the only real news companies that get any information would be the WSJ or the NY Times. Not Fox. Not CNN.
Who cares whether it is fact or rumour at this stage? Any mac-afficianado knows that this is the way apple play the game – teasing us with leaked info to build buzz and demand for unlaunched products. Then they blitz us with a mega-launch/jobs extravaganza and everyone loves it and all the rumours are forgetten. It is still exciting to read the buzz and speculation. Keep it up TC.
For current iPhone hardware iterations I doubt it because of the memory limits
No- the image is real ( or could be) If you have a jailbroken iphone with backgrounding then that is exactly what it looks like
Very confusing to see “iPhone 4.0″, “iPhone 4.0 OS”, “iPhone OS” and “iPhone 4″ used in the same article. Please don’t use a different way of referencing it every time you mention it. I would avoid any reference that does not include “OS” unless you mean to be implying that there is a rumor of the next gen iPhone hardware being release, which I don’t think is what is being rumored about.
That would make the I phone more attractive
They might limit background apps to new hardware
I have an average of 5-10 applications open on my Mac at any given time. I rarely monitor how many, because a) I’m plugged in & b) I have enough memory. I really don’t want to monitor having multiple apps open at once to preserve my battery – I’d rather go without background processing until the battery technology improves to the point where every day I won’t need to run to a plug as if I’m running in from a blizzard without a jacket (which I hear some Android people need to do). Come to think of it, I wish we could just fast forward like 15 years when there will be real wireless power. Note to: eCoupled, PowerMat & the Wireless Power Consortium: Thanks for the effort so far, but PLEASE MOVE FASTER! http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/12/wireless-power-takes-another-baby-step-at-ces-2010-with-qi-stand/
But Robert, that ignores the fact that you don’t HAVE to run any background applications. If you want, you could still run one app at a time. I’d rather make my own choices about whether I want to drain my battery faster, I don’t need Apple to decide whether I do that or not. Sticking with your metaphor: we are currently wearing a jacket even inside with the thermostat on high because Apple says so. I want to decide for myself when I take of my jacket…
when I take of my jacket… OFF.. .thanks for your opinion… I tend to agree with U.
I saw the typo, it’s national Rankhar typo day
Made a mistake in my earlier post as well, didn’t want to comment on my own post again…d’oh!
I was insulted as a reader and iPhone owner when I read this article. Not only does it tell me nothing new but reiterates the same things we’ve heard 20 times in the past two weeks, it also calls me an unintelligent, uneducated consumer.
“Most people don’t particularly care (yet) that they can’t [background apps] with their iPhones.” – Do you really think that statement is true? Honestly? Because if you do, you may want to consider retiring from TechCrunch and work for FoxNews or somewhere that isn’t geared DIRECTLY to the tech-savvy. I have been waiting for this ever since I bought my first iPhone (albeit the 3G S in August of 2009, I would have earlier there was just too many basic and common sense things that Apple was getting wrong – read: 3G and copy/paste).
“…they don’t view the device as a handheld computer.” – Um, yeah, the fact that it’s OS is a slimmed down, modified version of OS X is a pretty big give away. Sorry, but I think many people do see it as a mini-computer and expect it to work in similar ways, such as backgrounding apps.
“Apple is clearly taking its time to get it right the first time.” Um… And that’s in reference to what? I hope the slate, but it doesn’t really look like it is. If you are talking about the iPhone or iPhone OS, that statement basically says, “Apple is clearly taking its time to get it right the first time on their fourth attempt.” Right, so we aren’t counting iPhone, iPhone 3G, or the iPhone 3GS’s as their first time? Or iPhone OS 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1, 1.1.1 – 1.1.5, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.1, 2.1.1, 2.2, 2.2.1, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.1, and 3.1.2 as first attempts either? Ok, glad that we got that down. Like I said, I really hope you were talking about the slate, although it is only a modified version of the iPhone OS (which in turn is a modified OS X), and now we all know how many those are.
All in all, I learned nothing (the point of a post right?) that hadn’t been already repeated since last May (as Jason already pointed out), and was insulted in the process. Glad my day started out good.
Oh, I left out a point. The part that really annoys me is that Apple didn’t even bother to allow only their apps to background. Including the messaging app. Why, in this era of technology, do I have to close pandora or facebook or whatever I’m doing, just to respond to a text message? Ridiculous. Ok, that’s enough for me.
How quickly people forget what phones were like only 2.5 years ago…. Once we get background apps, you be off to complaining about something else. I need a 7 megapixel camera, and a flash, and video chat, and more battery life, USB 3.0, more memory, dual-core, and it needs to be thinner, and in pink, and apps need to be open, and I should be able to wirelessly sync, and….
Those are incredibly good points. We SHOULD have all that. Thank you for clarifying the dizzyingly large amount of ways the iPhone fails.
The iPhone needs background apps, I want to be able to listen to Last.fm whilst queuing downloads and browsing the Internets!
Exciting as usual from Apple. Lets hope its something huge for all iphone users.
Oh really thanks TechCrunch, you was able to talk about Foursquare also in this post!
January 17 you make me sad, no news about it, but yesterday (http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/18/foursquare-versus-yelp/), and today… you are great! Could I give you a suggestion? Why bother us with tech news about other companies that suck like Apple, simply talk and talk just about your (our) baby!
How could I wake up in the morning without your news about Foursquare?
But I’m lucky, I’ve you!
Thank you, FourCrunch!
Hmm- I’ve always wondered if the iPhone hardware especially on non-3GS models is really up for background tasks. Also have developers been briefed on how to program their apps so that they play nice as background apps? Not saying this isn’t possible via software only but I’m wondering if it is what took so long- Stan Winstone at http://tastyslate.com/ the Tablet blog.
I can’t wait for Apple to invent this background tasking thing. Then all the other companies can steal the idea…
How much you wanna bet OS 4.0 will only work on 3G and 3GS iphones?
With iPhone OS 3.0, we iPhone devs got that some months before the general public. If there was something like that coming, I’d have seen it by now. That doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be a totally new device using a new version of the OS.
Also, MacBook Pros are due to bump.. waiting to order my new one.
They posted the OS 4.0 developer code, but you have to be a developer to actually use it.
http://bit.ly/iphoneos4
I love how people want something so much, that they are willing to ignore what Apple have said and blindly go on pretending that they will indeed have their wish granted.
Background processes are about hardware limitations. That’s it. No magic, the current hardware models of the iPhone don’t have enough battery power to EVER run long enough to last an acceptable amount of time in a day without users crying foul.
While 3 different generations of hardware can and will run the new iPhone OS 4, enabling background processing will always be tied to the hardware device. So if iPhone OS 4 comes with support for multitasking more than Mail, Springboard and the few other network related processes that are constantly running, get used to the idea of having to upgrade to the next iteration of iPhone hardware to background processing support.
I normally avoid doing this, but I have to call out your blind faith in Apple and attempt to portray a bad decision as merely an evolution in the software. In addressing Apple’s decision to prevent background apps you say that, “it was the right choice then.”
However, you also admit that “the iPhone’s current lack of background applications is one of its most glaring weaknesses” and that “plenty of developers have already had their applications hampered by their inability to run in the background.”
You seem to suggest that there has been some technological advancement that now allows iPhones to run background apps. When the truth, as you admit, is that the iPhone restrictions are starting to look pretty stupid compared to other phones.
Come on, there is no reason for your statement that “it was the right choice then.” Just admit Apple made a mistake, everyone makes mistakes. Why do you need to coddle Apple and protect it from the appearance of having a flaw?
Blackberries have run background apps for ages. The original iPhone is more than capable of running background apps with little problems as jailbreaking has shown. Sure that eats into battery time, but so does watching a movie, and Apple isn’t preventing you from watching a movie on the iPhone.
And the push notification system? I think any heavy user will tell you constant indiscriminate beeps are not a solution.
Just admit that Apple made a mistake, it would make your reporting more credible.
“… Apple is clearly taking its time to get it right the first time.”
What for? The model these days seems to be get the me-too stuff out as soon as possible, then get it “right” the third or fourth time. Or not at all.
Hey, the Zune is almost pretty bad-ass.
I love my Zune, but I have an iPhone too.
Back ground applications in the age of cloud has really two components (data and state info from the device) and processing in the cloud. Apple has and should continue to promote that Architecture, this architecture ensure greater stability and scalability. Not only apple but Google is heading in that direction; Google’s new text-voice conversation is happening in the cloud not on the Nexus. Some of the background application needs are already supported via Apple Push Notification Service. I believe apple would enhance PNS service in a way that cloud (other applications and devices) can subscribe to various services or state on the device, such as location, state etc of the device. This will make sure device state and new services can be offered via cloud. I would also see improvement in the PNS UI.
Apple may also allow special back ground streaming API (that is optimize for better battery operation) that will allow running audio streams from the cloud in the back ground. The goal should be to cover maximum scenarios of back ground application needs without compromising the quality of the user experience, security and battery life.
I see Apple cloud base processing model (PNS) as an ECO system competitive advantage and they should build upon that rather than abandon it. They should built it in a way back ground applications are easy to use, secure and scales better than other phone.
Is that a new thing and news for you guys or you don’t have any news at all?? LOL
I have been using backgrounder forever..ofcourse on unlocked and free from restriction (JB) iPhone..
Wow, thats gonna be some pretty cool stuff. As it stands now, running multiple apps is the ONLY thing the Iphone needs.
RT
http://www.online-anonymity.se.tc
I use a N1 and background apps are good, but if I had to rate the top 5 features that iPhones are missing, background apps is probably like #4 or 5.
How is the miserable notification system not #1? It’s just absolutely awful.
iPhone OS v4 being released (much less announced) would mean a 6 month turn around on a Full Version Upgrade.
Which does not vibe with their history of iPhone OS releases the past 2 times of a 1 year cycle.
They might announce the next iPhone OS but that would really be a waste of a press conference – dont ya think?
“As it did with copy and paste (which iPhone users had to wait years for)” – LOL… It was less than two years. “Years”!
There is probably one single feature of the iPhone that keeps me using it. The fact it doesnt allow background apps.
If Apple decided to allow background applications to run – I would have no reason to use iPhone any other similarly capable smartphone.
Have you ever noticed over time your computer slows down and starts to have problems? If you have, its because over time you installed more and more stuff to it, if you havent, its because you didn’t. Every program you installed added more executables and services which ran on startup – depleting your system resources till nothing is left. If you have have even mediocre computer skills, you can take preventive measures, if not your going to be buying a new computer in 18 months thinking thats just the way it goes…
All those apps you installed:
* They consume your systems main memory leaving very little for whatever you were explicitly trying to do, causing your system to have to page out memory to hard drive, slowing you to a halt.
* They consume CPU cycles making your applications quanta further and further apart.
* They suck up internet bandwidth reducing what is available for your current activity.
* The obvious one with a mobile device, is power consumption.
These factors are even more critical on mobile devices where resources are so much more limited.
I love that my iphone is 100% as responsive today, as it was when I bought it. It has never slowed down, the battery still has standby levels of over a week. In 2 years Ill still be on my same iPhone, and I’ll be silently amused at Droid users who have “upgraded”.
The push notification system is plenty sufficient. Someone needs to tell me what the problem is with having an app load its data in the first few second of use? As bandwith increases, that data load will not even be noticeable, thus fully eliminating the need to be getting data in the background.
I use Yahoo instant messenger, and do not have any issues with only seeing one message at once. I can only read one at a time, and if I want to see the context of the conversation, running the app is sufficient, again a few seconds of data load, something which will be improved upon over time.
There may be an argument for allowing applications who specific purpose (such as streaming audio) to run in the background, but knowing apple, if they did want to make an exception, it would be tightly controlled. This I am OK with, because I will not use those applications – but I do not want a system where I cannot download an application without getting a couple of background processes with it.
Passive monitoring of GPS location has serious privacy issues associated with it. I assume they prompt everytime an app wants to use your location – for exactly that reason. While passive monitoring of GPS location has its applications, it comes with a risk, and it also comes at a huge battery cost. GPS is a power hog. I would bet your phone would die in a matter of hours if your GPS was always on and receiving. Im sure someone can comment with exact numbers.
99% of the time users are not going to be able to even interact with more than one application at a time on the iphone – so the restriction makes sense given *all* the benefits, and I believe it was the right choice from the beginning.
All in all, the benefits far outweigh the losses.
Are you in PR for Apple? Because you’re reaching pretty far to spin this to support your smug superiority to Droid users.
In two years, you’ll be dropping ridiculous money to replace your battery (by sending it in, mind you). The idea that multiple applications running at the same time has a bearing on the stability of the device long-term is just fiction.
And if in two years, you’re still running one application at a time thinking that there’s no need for more than one at a time, then you’ll be missing out.
Meanwhile, today I have my GPS navigation going including tracking traffic while I use a third-party music program and browse the web using a third-party browser and get real-time push notification from gtalk, gmail, email, text messages, sports scores, twitter, and weather updates.
Honestly, you seem like someone who is just too closely identified with your iPhone and Apple.
The “battery drain” excuse is very recent, only since Android took off in popularity (around the 1.6 release, September). No one has ever quoted any apple employee saying that battery drain is the reason for no background apps.
The reason for no background apps is pretty simple, Apple never wanted 3rd parties apps in the first place. They were squeezed into the 2.0 release due to overwhelming pressure. So they’ve sandboxed the apps so that they can continue to control the user experience. One app-at-a-time is pretty embedded into the “iPhone way” and probably isn’t going to change.