With the Palm Pre expected to arrive within the next few weeks and join the mobile operating systems war, speculation is mounting as to just how well this completely new platform will perform. This is especially pertinent when it comes to the Pre's ability to multitask, since the iPhone--one of its main competitors--can run a new application only after exiting the first one.

In contrast, the webOS applications on the Palm Pre are run from a Webkit-based engine--created using standard web development tools such as CSS, JavaScript and HTML. Supposedly, this is less resource intensive; Palm product managers have asserted that it would be very hard to overload the phone when it was first demonstrated at CES2009.

Certainly, the sleek "card-like" switching between various applications by simply flicking one's finger to the right or to the left was impressive. Ultimately, the ability to multitask effectively can only help the Palm Pre against the tough competition. Only time will tell if the Pre will successfully lure iPhone users to switch camps.

To read more:
- check out this article from CNET News

Related Articles:
The mobile operating systems war
Palm investor thinks that Pre will lure iPhone users over
Palm Pre: Three times as lucky?