Microsoft has confirmed comments made at MIX10 that Windows mobile 7 Series devices won’t be able to cut and paste between applications – apparently users don’t want it and even if they did the in-built key-phrase-detection technology would make it redundant. It is amazing that Microsoft says users don’t want it, it is unbelievable that a functionality so essential will be missing from Windows Mobile devices
Microsoft has decided that as Windows Phone 7 Series can automatically detect phone numbers and email addresses – highlighting them for interaction – then there’s no reason to be able to cut and paste between applications. Apple’s Newton could do that, but it didn’t stop the device supporting cut and paste too, and we’ll skip over the fact that Apple still claims a patent on the idea! Absurd
Cut and paste does present a UI challenge to the finger-driven interface, but no more than changing the font size or underlining text, which is rather the point. Microsoft doesn’t want people changing font sizes or cutting and pasting documents together. More Absurd!
Yesterday at MIX10 Microsoft told us that there would be no cut, copy, and paste in Windows Phone 7 Series, which follows on the news of an Apple iPhone-style closed app market and lack of 3rd party multitasking. When the original iPhone 2G debuted in 2007 without cut, copy, and paste, multitasking, and most importantly a third-party app platform, it led us to wonder — and not unjustifiably — if the Windows Phone 7 could be considered a smartphone?