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Like the iPhone’s lack of copy/paste functionality, the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 has been criticized for its lack of true multi-touch support. Multi-touch technology has been gaining traction as the most intuitive way to interact with a touchscreen smartphone, and has been a driver in the iPhone’s success. So, why are the G1 and Android OS so conspicuously missing multi-touch support? Word has it that Apple asked Google to keep their hands off multi-touch technology.
According to an Android team member, Google purposefully omitted multi-touch support from their Android OS at the request of Apple. Google reportedly complied with Apple’s request with little fuss, presumably due to Google’s close-knit relationship with Apple.
The G1 and Android OS have been proven to work with multi-touch gestures, so it’s not a matter of hardware incompatibilities keeping multi-touch off the G1. Moreover, the G1′s capacitance touchscreen is perfectly suited for multi-touch interaction. The problem, it seems, is that Apple has a veritable stranglehold (or at least they’d have us believe as much) on multi-touch technologies, thanks to a few key patents.
But, there’s hope yet. It’s too easy to see Google developing the Android OS with full muti-touch support in a private development branch, waiting for the day when Apple licenses mulit-touch (or at least stops trying to protect the technology through dubious patents). The Palm Pre is already being prepared to showdown with Apple over multi-touch technologies on smartphones, so it may just be a matter of time before we see Android rocking multi-touch!
[Via: VentureBeat]
About The Author
Will Park
Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
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Kevin
