The next iPhone operating system may be bringing partial support for multitasking to the table, but the true king of smartphone multitasking has been revealed as the Samsung i8910HD, which has been recorded running 62 apps at the same time.
The Palm Pre is a native multitasker and recently one of these webOS-based mobiles was spotted with 50 apps being handled in one session. However, the i8910HD has already beaten this, despite being equipped with 256MB of RAM, which is half the amount boasted by the Pre.
The Samsung i8910HD uses the Symbian operating system, which many have recently criticised because of its ageing looks and poor implementation on touchscreen handsets. Despite this it continues to prove itself to be an unrivalled multitasking platform, suiting power users who cannot bear to wait whilst apps load.
Sadly the i8910HD does not allow you to run quite this number of apps in its standard form. The 62 apps were only operable thanks to a customised ROM update from HyperX, so those with a bit of mobile tinkering knowhow will be able to take advantage but this is not suitable for the mainstream user.
The focus of the smartphone market is moving away from simply platforms that offer lots of apps, towards the ability to multitask and have many apps accessible and active at the same time. Thus far multitasking has been a feature of specific smartphone platforms, without really making a mainstream impact, but the new iPhone OS will doubtless allow Apple to claim this innovation as its own.
