Some of my colleagues were disappointed by the iPads lack of multitasking. However iPad does multitasking very well just limits this ability for some build in services (e.g. music). Compared to current refined desktop OS's it sounds that a very serious limitation but also has some compelling benefits:
- No program can run without the users knowledge. Naturally we can have a look into to the tasks running in every OS's but to know what this many processes are doing needs expert knowledge. In iPad the control is much better; if a program doesn't do something useful and visible for the client it shouldn't run at all.
- Better utilization of resources. Less task switching is needed and programs can be shared among processor cores more effectively. On small, portable computers that can make a big difference.
- Standard services can move to OS and provide better quality and performance.
For me this is a promising development. What are the background processes used for anyway; listening music, updating programs and data, complex calculations, file transformation. But most of this could be provided by the operating system freeing developers (and the OS) to do the same multiple times in different flavors. And these services didn't have to stop at the boundaries of the computer. They can run in a cloud on Internet or in hybrid mode locally (if we don't have access or money for the on-line service) in simplified and slow way or fast and complex in the cloud.
In my opinion this is the future of the OS. Instead of a product it will turn into a flexible front end of various services. In this model everybody wins; users, application developers, but the most gains is at vendors who are able to integrate services and operating systems.
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