Windows Phone 7 Lacks Copy-and-Paste

theodp writes "In a behind-the-scenes look at Windows Phone 7 (photos), CNET's Ina Fried notes that Microsoft's new software has won early praise for breaking ground in some areas, but takes a step backward in others. In particular, it doesn't support features like copy and paste and multitasking that were already part of the old Windows Mobile. 'I think users use cut-copy-paste periodically,' said Microsoft exec Terry Myerson, '(but) there's other things they use more frequently.' Hey, tradeoffs had to be made — it was either copy-and-paste or Goo Splat."

Comments

True, and they caught shit for it

[Sycraft-fu]

However the real thing is that the old Windows mobile DID have these features. Apple I suppose has the excuse of "We couldn't figure it out because it was our first time making a mobile OS and all our smart people were too busy rolling around in piles of money," or something. However MS has a mobile OS out, right now, that can copy and paste and multitask.

So what the fuck? Do they think Apple succeeded because of those stupid restrictions? I'd guess they succeeded in spite of them, not because of them.

Doesn't matter, I'll happily stick with my Blackberry until my contract is up and then it is probably going to be another BB or an Android phone. I'll have to see, but if MS and Apple have the "You don't want to use your phone as a tool idea," well then my money will keep going to RIM, or maybe Google.

Re:True, and they caught shit for it

[cbhacking]

Windows Mobile and Windows Phone are completely different at the UI level. I mean, literally, as far as I can tell they may have thrown away everything above the WinCE kernel and core level. I'm not saying that excuses the lack of useful and important features, but it does explain why they might not have had time to implement them (because they were working on other stuff, and would have had to re-implement them from scratch) and makes the "But WinMo6 did it!" argument rather irrelevant.

I would say that somebody there seems a little too caught up in replicating even the mistakes of Apple's launch. As you point out, Apple did catch shit for those mistakes - it might not have cost the device its success, but it did cost them plenty of customers - and while they eventually added Copy/Paste, I'm still not buying any device which is effectively a handheld computer, but which lacks the ability to run more than one interactive application simultaneously.

I suppose that means I probably won't be buying a WinPhone7 device, either. In a way, this is disappointing - I was hoping to have more choice when the time came to upgrade my phone, choice is always good and I have no inherent objection to buying Microsoft products as long as they don't suck - but lacking such features pretty much means it sucks, regardless of what else it has, and that means I won't be buying one.

Re:True, and they caught shit for it

[RulerOf]

No, the old Intellipoint mouse. That thing was gold-standard for optical mice.

That is probably the truest statement I've read *all* day. That mouse was the one that finally got me to switch from trackball back over to the normal style mouse. I used it for years until one day it would blink on and off while I was playing video games, constantly getting me killed. I replaced it with a Logitech and have been Logitech for years now.

After I was certain I'd never need the Intellimouse ever again, I cut the cord off of it, grabbed a baseball bat, and had my friend pitch it to me in my backyard. It was a home run, and we never did find every piece of the device.

Brave but Pointless

[Nerdfest]

I'm not sure where MS thinks they're heading with Windows Phone 7. Their only advantage with WM6 was that it was actually an open platform ... you could install applications from any source. From a usability point of view, it sucks, and I say that as a current user. It is not really intended to be used without a stylus, it's slow, and it's generally not very intuitive. It seems that they're dropping their only feature, adopting the early failures of Apple (cut & paste), and heading towards what most people dislike about the iPhone (single marketplace).

Maybe their doing what Linus Torvalds did with Git, in reversing every decision that CVS made, but I don't think it's going to end well for them. Between iPhone and Android, they're beat in almost every feature.

Re:Brave but Pointless

[node 3]

I disagree that Microsoft has always been behind Apple.

I never said they were.

Not only did Apple copy from everyone else in features

I never said they didn't.

they literally copied NeXT and Mach into the OS

No. Mac OS X is Nextstep.

KHTML into the browser

WebKit is based on KHTML. But this is both a.) not what I mean by copying above and b.) exactly the sort of thing open source is meant for.

This is a great thing, I see nothing wrong with this

I never said there was. In fact, I stated quite the opposite. See below.

but it is wrong to exclude Apple from copying of playing catch-up.

It's even more wrong to think that's what I did.

Perhaps you missed this part of my post?

"unlike Apple who, when they copy they make things better (that's what "good artists copy, great artists steal" means)"

Re:wait a minute

[painandgreed]

Well they did, until Apple decided to put it in (from the complete lack of a user outcry since the iPhone's inception, I'm sure - this is another brilliant concept from the mind of the great Steve Jobs).

If you are serious, I think you are failing to see Apple's sales strategy. They were always going to have cut-and-paste, just like they were always going to have MMS. Sure, the initial version didn't have them, but that is because Apple starts with a small core functionality and makes it work. They don't worry about bullet points as much as they do a working and easy to use end device. One they have it, then they will put out a new version (in the iPhone's case both for hardware and software). The new versions will have those bullet point features added once they have been made to work as well as the core functionality. Not only does this give a solid and useable device which appeals to the general consumer, but also give them feature creep and a reason for people with perfectly working earlier versions to want to buy new models. When the first iPhone came out I knew it would have cut-and-paste as well as MMS if I waited, and it did. Look at the iPod, they did the same thing there. Once the iPod got photos, games, and notes. I knew that it would eventually replace my PDA* in functionality if I waited long enough.

*As it happened, the cell phone replaced if first, but I was still lacking features will lately. The iPod touch would have done that perfectly however if I hadn't have gotten a cell first.

Re:iPhone didn't have cut-and-paste either..

[gig]

The iPhone story is very different.

iPhone lacked copy/paste in its first couple of versions. In Windows Phone *7* we are seeing the devices lose a feature they already had in 6.

iPhone lacked copy/paste during a time when multitouch was extremely new and there were zero multitouch implementations of copy/paste. Windows Phone 7 is giving up the feature years later, when there are many phones with multitouch copy/paste.

iPhone is a consumer device, sold direct to iPod users. Windows Phone 7 is coming from a B2B company whose phones are sold as enterprise phones, phones you do work on.

When iPhone got copy/paste, it was the full-featured desktop copy/paste from OS X, finally exposed in the iOS interface in a very elegant way, across all of the apps, including over 100,000 native 3rd party apps. It was worth waiting for. Users were immediately highly productive with it and have forgotten it was ever missing. It works with complex data types. It has a speller built-in now. It runs on a full-size tablet now. When Microsoft brings this feature back, it will be as full of caveats as all of their stuff.

You can pick on various features of iPhone as being missing, but since they shipped their very first phone, overall they have been ahead of everyone else, leading the industry. Windows Phone 7 doesn't lead anything.

Re:Windows Phone 7 is great

[oakgrove]

You still have to write Java apps.

Which means what, exactly? What application can you write for iOS that you can't write for Android? There are many security and development advantages to writing apps in managed code and the NDK takes care of any performance issues. I fail to see the downside. I could see if there were a speed advantage to the iOS model but there isn't. For example, side by side, the Android browser in Froyo as running on a Nexus One has been demonstrated to be faster than the iPhone 3GS and the iPad despite the fact that they are both based on Webkit. So, where's the advantage?

That is total BS and it's time for Android users to stop playing the "we're too new to be successful" card.

Did you even read the rest of my comment or did you just stop right there? I'll just quote it for you:

and there are more people with iPhones who buy apps thus providing the incentive and momentum for more applications to get written. As Android continues to mature and grow, this may change.

Note the bolded points. I specifically point out that, A, more people have iPhones and, B, Android still has more maturing to do.

Come on now...

[billsayswow]

Come on, don't start coming down on them for no copy-paste yet. It took the iPhone long enough to get it, and we gave them a chance.

Re:Windows Phone 7 is great

[ozmanjusri]

Yes, that's the joke.

Actually, the joke's on everybody who really believes cut & paste will be missing.

This happens with every MS OS release. They'll make some controversial claim, like the non-negotiable startup sound in Vista, or the three-process limit in 7 netbook edition, then "reverse" the decision amongst grandiose statements like "We listen to our users!"

In a month or so, you'll see a marketing campaign based on "This is YOUR mobile OS"....