Why Your Phone Will Never be Better than Mine

"The T-Mobile HTC G1 — the first phone to run Google's Android platform — may lack multi-touch capabilities because of an agreement with Apple.
VentureBeat's MG Siegler cites an anonymous Android team member, who said the G1's touchscreen isn't multi-touch because Apple asked Google not to implement it.
Why would Apple do such a thing? It's a feature that sets Apple's handset apart from its competitors, whose touchscreen phones can't detect simultaneous input like the iPhone's. It's the feature that enables that precious "pinching" gesture for zooming, which Apple is attempting to protect with its recently approved, 358-page iPhone patent.
So it's certainly believable that Google would obey a request from Apple. The two companies do, after all, have a pretty strong comradery that Google wouldn't wish to disturb. And it might have been wise for Google to comply, since tensions seem to be rising between Apple and Palm, whose new Palm Pre handset appears to mimic the iPhone's multi-touch screen.
Still, if the story about Google is true, it's a bit disturbing to believe Apple is powerful enough to cripple (i.e., limit the capabilities of) someone else's hardware and software in addition to its own."

PUNCH!

via http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/
Source: Apple asked Google not to use multi-touch in Android, and Google complied