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In the Multi-tasking vs Saved State debate, the fact is, one is better than the other one, and for a number of reasons.
Multi-tasking is better of course because:
1) It encourages the use of a robust OS with proper memory space protection, meaning its less easy for a rouge application to take your device down. If there is only one program running at a time then you do not need these special measures.
2) It removed the burden for the UI from the developer to the OS, meaning good software is easier to right, meaning more and better software, which benefits the end user.
3) Returning to a saved state has its own costs, and may not necessarily be instant e.g. re-paginating an ebook, re-rendering a web page or acrobat file, re-calculating a formula etc, loading a file from slow storage back into memory etc.
Thats regarding saved states. I believe in a way you are confusing saved states vs multi-tasking also. Clearly playing music in the background IS multi-tasking, as is running an IM program. Saved state as you described above is NOT. So the other difference between PPC's and Palms is the TYPE of multi-tasking, that is pre-emptative vs cooperative.
Pre-emptative is better, again for stability and robustness reasons, which is as useful on a PDA as on a desktop. In many instances, when software crashes on a PPC you are returned to the desktop. In Palm it resets the device. They are less stable and more fragile because of cooperative multi-tasking. The implementation is also very dependent on software developers, and if they mess up your device is toast.
Palms use a combination of cooperative multi-tasking and saved state. The Real Player on Palm is a good example of software that does multi-tasking (playing music in the background) but did not do the saved state properly. This imposes a burden on developers, meaning they spend more time coding around the deficiencies of the OS and less doing the real work of the software. It introduced additional complexity into every program, instead of just in the OS where it can be perfected and used by all the software. Maybe this is why PPC software is generally better than POS software.
I agree than PPC's could do a better job at exposing the multi-tasking, like a desktop taskbar does, but this is the only way their model is deficient. Lets stop acting as if we are constantly restrained by resources. We are no longer dealing with 33Mhz devices and 2 MB memory.
Surur
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