Apple Nixed Multi-touch in Android?

According to one Android team member, Google's iPhone-challenging mobile OS lacks multi-touch capabilities due to a request from Apple.

When a hacker is able to enable multi-touch capabilities on T-Mobile’s Android-powered G1, you have to wonder how Google engineers couldn’t figure it out. As it turns out, they could – but the booming voice of a fruit told them not to.

According to an anonymous Android team member cited by VentureBeat, the Android team was well-aware how to enable multi-touch, but opted to leave it out by request from Apple. Unfortunately, neither the source nor VentureBeat specified whether Apple’s “asking” came in the form of a friendly request for a favor, or a thinly veiled legal threat.

Given how closely Google and Apple have worked together in the past (witness: Google maps integration on the iPhone and Google as the default search engine for the phone,) it isn’t out of the question that Google axed multi-touch voluntarily. But given rumblings of a patent war between Palm and Apple over multi-touch on the Pre, it’s clear that legal issues may have loomed over the decision, as well. And VB’s source is apparently glad they left it out for that reason.

Both Dell and HP have produced multi-touch enabled notebooks, but no company has yet released a multi-touch-enabled phone similar to the iPhone. Palm’s anticipated release of the Pre later this year will likely be the first challenger, either leading the way for others or proving that Apple’s patents will make things difficult.