VentureBeat is reporting that Apple asked Google not to include multi-touch on Android, and they agreed. An unnamed source only cited as a member of the Android development team is saying that Google complied with Apples request to not implement multi-touch. Apple holds many patents, including ones for multitouch interfaces and is currently looking to defend those patents from Palm over the Pre and its new multitouch Web OS. It makes sense that Google would get along with Apple given that Eric Schmidt sits on Apple’s board of directors. But when going head to head in the smartphone market, it almost seems like a conflict of interest.
While it’s been shown that the HTC G1 touchscreen supports multitouch inputs, other forthcoming Android hardware may not, so it may have seemed that important moving forward. But with the storm of Android devices on the way, will it be long before Google decides that innovative technologies such as multi-touch input are important for the future of Android? They may be waiting for the outcome of the Apple vs. Palm war first.
