[jyl]

The cut-n-paste-between-apps task your prof wants to do does not require multi-tasking. It just requires applications to open and close very quickly, and to save their state when they close.

However, other things would require multi-tasking - for instance, reading an e-book while listening to music. I think multi-tasking would be very desirable to have. This is pretty damned obvious, Apple definitely knows it.

And I find it very odd and illogical that iPad wouldn't have multi-tasking. The iPhone OS is capable of multi-tasking, as the hacked iPhones prove. The A4 chip has more than enough horsepower for it - its is probably 2X as powerful as the TI chip in the Palm Pre that multi-tasks very well.

So, the OS and the CPU are able to multi-task, people will want multi-tasking, and Apple knows they want it . . . I suspect that the iPad will have multi-tasking - maybe not at first, but before too long.