Before this, Apple’s iPhone was the main target of users and reviewers who were complaining that it did not support full multitasking, meaning you couldn’t run third-party apps in the background. Sure, you could listen to the music from the iPod app while composing an email, but you couldn’t listen to music from the Pandora app while composing an email. Now it seems that Microsoft has decided that it might actually be the way to go, as the newly announced Windows Phone 7 Series will not support multitasking as well. The reason given is the same as the one offered by Apple – it drains batteries. It does sound like a valid reason, especially since many Android and webOS users have complained about battery life before.

Fortunately Microsoft does have a workaround in place, as Windows Phone 7 series will support push notifications, allowing third-party apps to send updates and status messages to a phone’s home screen, even when the app isn’t running in the background, just like how the iPhone does it.

Do you think that Apple got it right, by not allowing background apps, or do you think that webOS and Android are on to something with full multitasking?

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