If anything, Objective C is going to be more efficient in terms of processor cycles and memory, so that point would go to the iPhone.
I prefer Android's approach: laissez faire, and see what works out rather than attempt to foresee everything beforehand and risk killing off good apps before they even have a chance.
I also prefer Android approach, even if theoretical performance might be lower not being native.
almost all the arguments here are on technical merits. me, gruber, and others seem unable to convince you guys that apple quite often doesn't make decisions based on technical merits, but rather on what will make a better experience for the user.
gruber, me, others, etc, certainly aren't arguing that background apps aren't possible. the argument is whether it's advisable, given the current limitations on memory, cpu, battery, apple engineering time, and backward compatibility.
one of the main things that makes windows suck so much is microsoft's slavish devotion to backward compatibility. there are things in the win32 api that got there because the 8086 didn't have memory protection, for crying out loud. apple doesn't want to commit to a public api until they know it's a good one.
"I prefer Android's approach: laissez faire ..." spoken like a hacker, rather than like a typical user of a mobile phone. apple is always going to prefer thinking about these things from the point of view of the user.
> apple doesn't want to commit to a public api until they know it's a good one.
> "I prefer Android's approach: laissez faire ..." spoken like a hacker, rather than like a typical user of a mobile phone. apple is always going to prefer thinking about these things from the point of view of the user.
Well, I am a hacker, and I'm not going to apologize for it:-) I'd rather have that freedom, and see what happens. I get your point, and think it's a sensible one, but when all is said and done, I'd rather have a more open system. I think that Apple has certainly demonstrated that their approach is a good one for certain types of users, but it's not one that I prefer.