When Microsoft mentioned that the near ubiquitous cut-and-paste smartphone feature would not be available on Windows Phone 7 Series, folks around the blogosphere threw up their arms in frustration at Microsoft’s seeming oversight. But, as we mentioned a couple days ago, Microsoft was merely referring to the lack of cutting and pasting in the initial release of Windows Phone 7 – not the death of the feature altogether. Today, we have rumors coming from within Microsoft, confirming that cut and paste would be made available on WP7 sometime after its launch later this year.
The decision to forgo the text-copying feature was more based on Redmond’s goal of meeting their 2010 holiday season launch window, and didn’t necessarily indicate that Microsoft was abandoning the cut and paste paradigm. We had a chance to speak with a Senior Product Manager at MIX10, and he told us that Microsoft was “focused on delivering a great end user experience in the time frame allotted.” He went on to mention that “some things won’t be there on day one, but will address them in the future.” The statements may have been vague, but the intent is clear – Microsoft isn’t ignoring cut/paste outright, it’ll be here eventually.
Basically, Microsoft knows that they need to have cut and paste in Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, the current method used in Windows Mobile wasn’t up to par with the WP7 team’s expectations and they would rather hold off on introducing the feature until it was 100% ready to go live. It took Apple a couple years to hone the cut-paste methodology on the iPhone, and they managed to hit it out of the park. With a little luck, we’ll see Microsoft pushing out a polished version of the feature in less time than it took Apple to do with its iPhone.
[Via: iStartedSomething]