Apple Unveils the Future of iPhone OS

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With Jack Johnson filling the air at Building 4, Town Hall, Steve Jobs revealed what many of us have been expecting for over a year: multitasking. Along with Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller, Steve Jobs walked through 7 of the 100 new features coming to the “most advanced mobile operating system in the world” that will be available this summer.

Thursday’s announcements were the latest barrage in Apple’s escalating war with its one-time friend and partner, Google. That relationship quickly went south when Google got into the mobile business and spearheaded development of Android and Chrome, the free operating systems that are being used on a number of ever-growing hand-held devices.

With the iPad, which has sold over 450,000 units since it went on sale April 3. The company is trying to leverage the success of the iPhone and iPod Touch—which together account for over 85 million devices, worldwide—and build out a better way to browse the Web and download apps. It needs to keep up the pressure, though: For the first time since launching the iPhone, Apple saw its numbers slip—while Google’s surged. Google’s Android phones increased smartphone market share to 9 percent, up from 3.8 percent in the last quarter of 2009, according to comScore. By comparison, Apple slipped to 25.4 percent from 25.5 percent.

(More on Techland: Apple iPad (Wi-Fi) Review: Spork Edition)

Apple’s announcements Thursday are intended to shore up the operating system that runs the iPhone and iPad and plug some well-known holes. For starters, as has long been expected, Apple’s mobile devices will now be able to run more than one app at a time—something that Google’s phones have always been able to do. Users can also change wallpapers, create folders, access to the iBook store, as well as a social networking Game Center.

True to the rumors, Apple also announced its plans for the mobile-ad network, Quattro Wireless, which the company purchased in January for $275 million, and which competes with Google and AdMob. Mobile advertising is expected to be a white-hot field in the coming months, as advertisers get a better handle on how to serve up ads based on a user’s physical location. Apple’s goal is to create ads that are more interactive than current Internet ads with the same emotion evoked from TV ads. Estimates for impressions are upwards of 1 billion per day per iPhone/iPod Touch user.

(More on Techland: 12 Awesome iPad Decals)

It almost goes without saying that the rapid leapfrogging between Apple and Google will hardly abate. New devices running Chrome, a Google operating system for tablets, are expected shortly. Meanwhile, Apple is believed to be readying a new iPhone, which could be unveiled in June. Regardless of how it turns out, the winner is will be the consumer who gets to watch two of the smartest companies in history duke it out for their affections.

For further details (there are many) and live notes from today’s press conference check here.

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Two Minute Video: Ten iPad Apps To Grab On Launch Day

The 10 Best Camera Apps for the iPhone

http://callnresponse.wordpress.com Evan Narcisse

The multitasking looks promising but I’m waiting to see how it actually performs. Let us know if they have any units running OS 4, Peter.

Game Center could be big, too, but you need to have games that are built with it in mind. We’ll see what happens in the next few months.
http://zachwulf2.wordpress.com zachwulf2

This is such BS! Android has had multitasking from day 1, and now all of a sudden it’s cool because Apple does it?

Also, dragging and dropping your apps into folders? The iPhone OS is starting to look a lot like Android on the desktop.

I’m surprised that Steve Jobs didn’t walk out there with his foot in his mouth, because he had to admit that he’s completely borrowing features from his competitor.

Jobs honestly behaves like a child. Mark my words, when he dies, Apple is going down the toilet. It’s what happens to every great dictatorship.

I think the one thing this conference basically did was highlight the fact that Apple is admitting that it’s not God, and that it has to play catch up now. Android FTW
http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

The iPhone has had multitasking since day one, as well. They’re just expanding it to third party apps.
http://twitter.com/thepeterha Peter Ha

My initial impressions without having seen the dev preview first hand is that this isn’t true multitasking in the purest sense. Batterey life would suffer horrendously if you had multiple apps running in the background. This implementation is almost like a “most recent” sort of thing. During the Q&A someone had asked how you could kill apps to which Forstall said you couldn’t. Apple handles the apps running in the “background” and allocates memory if it’s needed. I’ll have to clarify but I think that’s what was said. It’s somewhat similar to how WinMo handles it but built on much, much better architecture. I’m pretty stoked to see the final product in a few months and what the devs have to say about it.
bignumone

Thank God for competition!
They sure do push each other, don’t they?
I personally hope Apple comes out on top, just to irritate the Windows geeks.
But they both are making some compelling products.
I wish Microsoft would get a clue about innovation. What a waste of a really good company as it stands now.
I am not sure when I would use multitasking on my iPod touch, but it would be a real asset on an iPad (I think).
http://canadiantechblogger.com dreamsburnred

Can’t wait for multitasking or folders :D.
umadlol

I’ve used a Dell Axim X30 when they first came out, and let me tell you. Multitasking, folders, and Flash (yes flash) was in Windows Mobile 2003. I could overclock the CPU from 312MHz to 524MHz with a piece of software available online. What these Smartphone OSes can do today, PDA OSes could do way back in the day so don’t be too impressed.
kjfisher

So why exactly do I need “multitasking”? I can only do one thing at a time, and the app closes and a new one opens with a couple of quick touches. When I go back to the first app, I’m always where I left off. So I’m not really sure I see the huge benefits to this. Also, I like keeping all my e-mail accounts separate, so I hope I’m not forced to put them all into one in-box.

Love the idea of lumping apps into folders, though (games, news, food, whatever).
nzmatt

but no “multitasking” support for iPhone 3G?
http://zachwulf2.wordpress.com zachwulf2

@kjfisher Oh, how cute it is to hear the innocent, naive iPhone zombies. Once you use an Android phone, you won’t ever want to go back to the app launcher. It’s like actually having a computer in your hand.