Kevin Fox of Fury noticed the missing Stocks, Weather, Voice Memo, Clock and Calculator apps from Apple’s iPad last week, and he has a theory. Either Apple was trying to keep the interface clean to let press awe in the sheer beauty of the device without too many app icons, or the company is up to something.

He thinks Apple will introduce these minor apps in a dashboard-like, multitasking environment and have them running in the background. That’s where these widgets are placed in Mac OS X. That’s a good conclusion. It could also mean that apps were probably not ready for prime time showing, and Apple may unveil them by the time the iPad hits store shelves.

Whatever it may be, we strongly believe we’ll see Apple enable multitasking in the next major iPhone OS 4.0 update as a signature feature.