Close on the heels of its earlier-this-month report about multitasking support of the Apple iPhone OS 4.0, AppleInsider now reports, citing sources “familiar with Apple's plans for the new firmware,” that the iPhone’s multitasking will be similar to the Expose feature of Mac OS.

Confirming that the multitasking support will be a part of the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 release, the AppleInsider report elaborated that the change will allow users not only to run multiple applications concurrently, but also to easily switch between them via a keystroke combination - hitting the Home button two times.

With sources insistent that the multitasking support of the iPhone OS will exhibit “several characteristics of the Expose brand,” the difference between the two essentially will be that the switcher of the iPhone will deal with application icons, which will, like Expose, respond by fanning out in a grid to enable users to easily switch between running apps.

The addition of multitasking support, especially for third-party apps – a function that the iPhone OS 3. X lacks –, will allow the third-party app developers to access the functionality which reportedly is inherent in the iPhone OS.

Furthermore, the multitasking function will place the iPhone on an even keel, in terms of feature parity, with other smartphone operating systems like the Palm webOS, the Google Android, the RIM BlackBerryOS, and the Microsoft Windows Mobile.