Single-Tasking is Back

As Apple prepares to release a multi-tasking version of the iPhone OS, early impressions of the new interface highlight one of the fundamental problems that should have kept Apple true to the purity of the original experience and avoiding introducing a feature that adds a level of complexity that compromises the overall usability of the iPhones OS.

The iPad has demonstrated the power of single-tasking, reminding me of the days when personal computers could really only do one thing at a time. It demonstrates how  a modestly powered device – a single core processor, graphics chips, and a minimal amount of RAM - in a very compact and ergonomic form factor that can deliver  an incredibly compelling, engaging, rich, and even productive experience for applications ranging from entertainment to productivity. The iPad’s insistence that you focus on a single application at a time – while still being able to easily suspend and switch between apps as needed – also avoids introducing a level of system management that I feel fundamentally defeats the simplicity that makes this device a better experience than using a desktop for key applications. The iPad doesn’t force you to worry about or manage files, so why would you want to worry about what processes are running in the background?

I think the key driver for multi-tasking requests come from people who are trying to get the iPad to replace rather than complement their other computing devices. When Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) researchers in the 80’s and 90’s talked about ubiquitous computing, their point wasn’t that we’d have one device for everything – it was that we’d have devices everywhere. Our move to the web, and applications into the cloud, actually enables an entirely new paradigm of contextual computing, where your experience adapts to the multiple devices in your life, rather than a single device that provides a portal for all of your experiences.

Is multi-tasking even truly relevant to mass market mobile phone buyers? Multi-tasking as a benefit theme in the marking of mobile devices hasn’t has the type of traction one would expect – the Pre is a case in point – because multitasking in and of itself isn’t a benefit, it’s a feature. And in the context in which you would be utilizing a mobile device specifically, it can be a distraction, something entirely unnecessary for the majority of what you want or need to do at any particular time.

One of the most frequently cited examples if the ability for applications that want to stream background audio. This could have been accomplished in a way that would have allowed for the feature to be tied into existing system functionality – say, within iTunes, as it is on desktops. What are your thoughts on the introduction of multi-tasking to the iPhone OS and its true benefit? What do you see as a good potential application for it? And are the interface complexities that result worth it?