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http://blog.rlove.org/2010/04/why-ipad-and-iphone-dont-support.html used order. If the user switches back to an application that has been killed, the Android platform reloads the application’s state via Bundles. The whole process is seamless. Because Android has this state-saving framework, multitasking is feasible even on a device with limited memory and no swap. In summary, the iPad and iPhone don’t support multitasking not because it would hurt battery life, but because it is hard to do so on a swapless, embedded device without platform support for serialization, which the devices lack. It is likely that Apple will add the requisite functionality in a future OS release. Until then, enjoy your giant iPhone. Or rock a Nexus One, which multitasks. Update: Folks have asked me how a serialization system such as Bundles enable support for persistent applications, such as music players or IM clients. You wouldn't want these applications killed, even in low memory situations, and their state is ever changing so saving it isn't productive. There are many ways Apple can provide this support. On Android, we do so via Services. Most applications use the Bundle framework to save their state and are thus easily interruptible. Applications that provide a service to other applications, are a server, or function as a long-running background task use the Service framework. These applications are managed by the system more like Unix daemons and are not killed in least-recently-used order when memory is low.
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