Yesterday, it was revealed that Microsoft's upcoming mobile platform, Windows Phone 7 Series, won't include any copy and paste functionality. And it's not for lack of time or skill -- Microsoft told Engadget that it simply doesn't think users need to copy and paste things.
This news is disconcerting for several reasons: Mainly, it's shocking that Microsoft could come to this conclusion after the lack of copy and paste functionality was such a big deal for iPhone customers for several years. Following vocal complaints, Apple finally introduced 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 fold into their mobile operating systems.
I can see how a young company without much experience in the mobile market could see copy and paste as a throwaway feature, but for Microsoft, it's just inexcusable. It's a feature I use every day on my iPhone, and it's something other longtime iPhone owners I know are glad to have.
Microsoft says that the new OS will be able 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 about what I've seen of Windows Phone 7 so far, it's a shame that Microsoft had 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. The company has somehow managed to make its aging Windows Mobile 6 platform look 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.