Why the lack of copy and paste in Windows Phone 7 Series is troubling

Yesterday it was revealed that Microsoft’s upcoming mobile platform, Windows Phone 7 Series, won’t feature any copy and paste functionality. And it’s not for lack of time to implement the feature — Microsoft told Engadget that they simply don’t think users would need copy and paste.
This news is troubling for several reasons: Mainly, it’s shocking that Microsoft could come to this conclusion after the lack of copy and paste functionality was sort of a big deal to iPhone customers for several years. After many vocal complaints, Apple finally released the feature with the third version of its iPhone operating system. Copy and paste was also something that both Palm and Google made sure to implement in their mobile operating systems.
I suppose I could see how some young company — perhaps without much experience in the mobile market — could see copy and paste as a throwaway feature, but for Microsoft that conclusion is inexcusable. It’s a feature I use every day on my iPhone, and it’s something longtime iPhone owners I know are glad to have.
Microsoft says that there will be functionality within the OS to detect addresses and telephone numbers. While that helps somewhat,  it won’t cover other uses like quoting an article in an email, or sending a movie ticket confirmation code to a friend via text message.
As someone who has actually been excited by what I’ve seen from Windows Phone 7 so far, it’s a shame that Microsoft has to ruin the fantasy (that it may actually be thinking differently this time around), and remind us just how out of touch it can be with its users.
It’s also perplexing that copy and paste was a feature that Microsoft previously included in Windows Mobile. Microsoft has somehow managed to make its aging Windows Mobile 6 platform actually better than its new OS — at least in this respect.
But I suppose we shouldn’t expect any less from a company that thinks a  name like Windows Phone 7 Series is a good idea.
Tags: Windows Phone 7 Series
Companies: microsoft
People: microsoft