CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple's iPhone 3GS, iPad and newer iPod Touch devices will soon be able to run more than one non-Apple application at a time.
A software upgrade from Apple will let users play Internet radio Pandora while searching restaurant listings, for example.
The ability to multitask has long been on the wish list of Apple customers and developers. It will be available on the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch models this summer and the iPad this fall.
"We weren't the first to this party, but we're going to be the best," CEO Steve Jobs said at Apple's headquarters here. Multitasking on the devices today is limited to Apple's own programs.
The new iPhone operating system offers a way to see messages from multiple e-mail accounts in a single in-box; to set up folders organizing apps, such as gaming, by category; and to better protect data for corporate use.
Apple also unveiled an advertising platform called iAd, in which Apple will sell ads to run on apps made by outside developers. Nearly 100 million iPhones have been sold, Jobs said.
The new feature highlights how advertising is migrating to mobile devices as more consumers use them to work, shop and communicate, says Paran Johar, chief marketing officer for Jumptap, a mobile-advertising network.
The iPhone could get a further boost if Apple develops a version compatible with the Verizon Wireless network. AT&T has exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S. Verizon has told Apple it wants to carry the iPhone, but it's unclear if or when that will happen.
Meanwhile, Jobs called the iPad a "profound game-changer" and said 450,000 have sold since Saturday.
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