RSSMicrosoft cuts and pastes an egg
By Carmi Levy | Published March 18, 2010, 12:05 PM
Ever since she brought me into the world, my mother has taught me many things, namely to not only learn from my own mistakes, but also from the mistakes of others.
Microsoft clearly never spoke to my mom, as evidenced by its decision to leave cut, copy, and paste capabilities out of the new Windows Phone 7 Series platform, at least in the early rounds. If they had paid Mom a visit, they would have been told -- after being offered some tea, of course -- to fix all the boo-boos of earlier smartphone operating systems before releasing their own updated version. She would have advised them to understand the rough spots encountered by competitive offerings, and do everything in their power to avoid them.
I think my mom's ticked with Microsoft
Okay, perhaps she wouldn't have worded it precisely that way, but I'm certain you get my point regardless. I'm sure I speak for my mother (and likely, a whole bunch of you, too) when I say I'm disappointed in what may either be Microsoft's "decision" to leave three of the most basic functions in the history of computing out of its just-announced OS, or as we seem to be learning now, it's having overlooked the whole subject in the planning phase.
This morning, blogger Long Zheng reports he was told by Microsoft that cut and paste is something the company hopes will find a place in Windows Phone 7 Series at some future point.
Now, the initial excuse the company provided was (and is, and quite likely always will be) insufficient and, if we're being brutally honest, more than a little arrogant: "Most users, including Office users, don't really need clipboard functionality." So what's the story now, after Long's report: "We asked users to give us some details, and they decided, most users do like clipboard functionality, just not right at first?"
While I realize OS vendors have to make countless decisions about which features should and should not make it into the final product, I bristle at Microsoft's tone -- a bit like US Congresspeople explaining why the public option for health care is a really, really, really good idea, but just not for the bill being discussed today. If Microsoft (or, for that matter, if anyone at all) can learn anything from Congress this year, it's that people don't like being told by The Powers On High what they are supposed to want or not want, and when.
It isn't Microsoft's place to tell users that they won't ever need to cut, copy, or paste anything for as long as they own their new devices. It's the kind of blow-off statement that sounds shockingly like Apple when it introduced the iPhone in 2007, similarly stripped of any ability to cut-and-paste. After a sea of complaints from users and reviewers who actually do know what they want, and don't need to be told, Apple wisely retro-baked that functionality back into the OS two years later. While the controversy didn't seem to dent Apple's market share, Microsoft hardly has the benefit of Apple's marketing prowess or brand equity.
Apple aficionados were willing to cut the company some slack, and ended up buying iPhones anyway. Microsoft aficionados are a lot harder to find, they won't line up around the block in the middle of the night, and they'll probably pick up an Android-powered device as an alternative. With Windows Mobile...oops, Classic devices retaining this feature, and Windows Phone 7 Series lacking it, the inconsistency is difficult to understand. However you slice it, there will be no slack for Windows Phone 7 Series, and it's more than a little shocking that Microsoft couldn't see this coming.
Teaching us all a lesson?
In fairness to Microsoft, its new mobile OS includes a data detection service that automatically recognizes common elements like addresses and phone numbers. Within this context, perhaps there's room to make the argument that cutting and pasting is yesterday's news. This technology, popularized with the first mass-market GUIs in the early '80s, and perpetuated in virtually every desktop and mobile OS ever since, could be one of those things that we hold on to like a security blanket. And like the ratty old blanket, perhaps there's a time when we need to let go. Maybe, just maybe, Microsoft is doing us all a favor by pushing it out the door.
But consumers are a fickle lot. And what makes sense from a strategic or historical perspective isn't necessarily right from the point of view of the guy forking over the dough for your new wonder-product. Never mind that Microsoft may, in fact, be "right" in concluding that we no longer need cut, copy, and paste on our mobile devices. Customers, after all, are always right, even if their choices make them look like circus clowns who do their makeup in the dark. It's their mistake to make and their shame to live down. Even if the vendor believes otherwise, it's not the smartest business strategy to call them idiots and make fun of their smudged face paint.
Casting off a legacy
In fairness to Microsoft, I somewhat understand where the company is coming from. Previous versions of its mobile OS suffered from what I like to call Shrunken Windows Syndrome. Instead of being built from the ground up as truly mobile-enabled solutions, they seemed to be pared-down versions of Microsoft's flagship desktop OS products. Microsoft's philosophy seemed to be that if it worked on a PC, it would work on a smartphone or a PDA, too. I used a number of Windows CE and Mobile devices over the years, and I never got used to navigating a full-on Start menu, complete with cascading sub-menus, with a stylus or thumb keyboard. It was as if Microsoft never actually used its own mobile products out in the field, and never listened to users who complained bitterly that its design philosophy simply didn't work out there.
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft seems to have finally gotten the mobile message. It's built from the ground up as a modern, competitive, lean and efficient mobile OS. I suspect the cut-and-paste omission is the company's way of overcompensating for years of heavy Windows legacy on its mobile products, a hackneyed way to break with its past.
Memo to Redmond: There are other ways to accomplish this.
It's only temporary
If Long Zheng's reporting is accurate (and it often is), I'd wager that v7.1 will have copy and paste...that is, if Microsoft doesn't cave to the firestorm earlier and release it as an on-the-fly fix. Either way, the only way Microsoft will ever gain traction in the mobile OS market is by listening to both customers and prospective customers and integrating their suggestions -- well, the value-added ones, at least -- into successive generations of their product.
This is a gaffe Microsoft simply can't afford. Its mobile OS is in the fight of its life as Microsoft battles the Apple/Google/RIM juggernaut on one hand and its own declining mobile market share on the other. Beyond the numbers, there's the risk that the market has already given up on Microsoft succeeding as a mobile vendor. That psychological factor (something Palm knows all too well) is something Microsoft needs to fix by reinstating cut-and-paste support. Now wouldn't be soon enough.
Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.
Am I missing something here?
Why not use CNTRL-C and CNTRL-V?? I use it to copy and paste in Windows mobile devices on a daily basis.
Score: 0
|Oh Microsoft.. You are so crafty. Hmm, how can we keep the news flowing about our OS. Take away required features and then offer them before launch and generate tons of news!
Score: -2
|Will anybody buy these first generation Windows Phone 7 Series handsets? They have basic functionality missing.
What will you do? Wait until Windows Phone 8 Series has rectified the shortcomings? Or just go and buy an Android handset that can do it.
Score: -1
|Sorry IT "advisor"...I SERIOUSLY doubt that copy and paste will be the determining factor of whether people buy the phone or not. Especially considering MS already said a future patch will be released to address the issue, no new handset necessary.
Score: -4
|"Will anybody buy these first generation Windows Phone 7 Series handsets? They have basic functionality missing."
They do? Do you have one? How'd you get it???
Oh, wait, they aren't even out yet... So what you meant to say was, "They *may* have basic functionality missing based on certain press reports and interpretations..."
Score: -4
|C.C & P > Version 5.0 ?
Score: -3
|I think the issue is that they dont know how to ask users things.. and if you word a survey/exit questionaire/focus group session wrongly .. you will get back bad info.. similarly if you dont give a legit real world "envirlment" to test you will not get back real world data..
in other words, if you want the exit data to say "copy paste is rarely if ever used and our new smart linking functionality covers 95% of the most common use cases we are done"
However it smells of poorly done research, as no "smart data linking" will ever be able to pull just the right data from that IM you just got, and throw it into the email app or vice versa..
Will it automatically call up every url entered in the system (in all their frequently impossible to decipher glory with no context) when i type http:// in other apps?)
What about paragraphs of text from emails etc?
Adding smart data linking is a brilliant move, ditching Copy/Cut/Paste in the process is pretty much a dumb move (even if you ignore the firestorm around iPhone not being able to do it for 2 years, its still a dumb move)
Multitasking is a much less dumb move, as in reality there are VERY few use cases where you actually need to multitask apps on a phone.. As long as they are open to and willing to allow some "special case" multitasking even if its done by attaching to a system service so that the user can control exactly what is run in background.. (such as streaming radio running while you are in other non background apps HI PANDORA) or IM/twitter/etc being able to attach via plugin/etc to the buiit in apps.. there is a MUCH stronger case to be made for this being limited/unavailable to generic run of the mill apps.. (noone needs to have iFart running in background while on the phone for example)
Score: -1
|I think its just that they are copying iPhone v1, so they don't screw up. Then they can upgrade to copying iPhone v2 a year or two later and include cut and paste.
MS is very very good at copying and pasting things, but I don't think they want anyone else doing so.
Score: -3
|wharrgarbl!
Everyone copies/borrows from one another, it doesn't matter who the company is NO ONE is original.
MS started over so they felt copy/paste wasn't essential because of smart links, the majority of the people they are aiming this at won't care they can't copy/paste.
Because MS omitted a feature Apple did they are copying? Wow, ok then...
Were they wrong to jump on Apple when they did, yes but I guess it is harder implementing a copy/paste function as Apple proved. I rather MS does everything right this time then half a** it.
And again about the copy thing - Even Linux looks like OSX or Windows.
Cars also look similar to one another and also include the same features BUT no one complains about this and you know why? Because they have lives and look at important things like
Will this device suit my needs?
Is it compatible with my existing products?
Does it work the way I need it to?
Consumers don't go OMG Honda totally copied Toyota and took their idea for better efficient cars! I am not buying from them!
They care about price, value, and quality.
Score: -4
|I wonder if Apple patented not having cut and paste and Microsoft will have to pay royalties for not having cut and paste?
Score: -2
|Before the WWII the Japanese built their navy by copying the destroyers from their good friends the British. They copied them right down to the cracks in the boilers. Seems like MS is developing the same level of detail.
Score: -2
|I think your deluded if you think that the "connected kids" who buy iphones will not care that they cant cut and paste from an IM into an email into a social website.. you are completely deluded.
This is the problem .. Apple wasn't making any bold design choice with removing the system clipboard, and neither is MS.. its a content security system.. nothing more nothing less.. its got nothing to do with mobile resources, its nothing to do with complexity, has nothing to do with "focus groups/polls saying people do not care about copy/paste"
It has to do with system clipboard being very easy to exploit in terms of copying data from somewhere it should be (paid content such s wallstreet journal subscription, streaming music, etc) to a file container.. this is why Apple didnt do a system clipboard in mobile OSX, and its why MS is trying to do away with it on Zune Phone 1.0 .. it makes the security/drm model for content signficantly easier if you cannot copy it by default.
Score: -2
|"...people don't like being told by The Powers On High what they are supposed to want or not want, and when."
You should really hate Apple...but you don't! What's up with that, Carmi?
Score: -2
|So wait...
What are they not including?
Clipboard (Office), or Cut Copy and Paste (Windows)?? You seem to be using the two interchangeably, when they are two entirely different things as far as I understand them...perhaps my understanding is lacking?
From the link in the engadget report the blogger got his text-byte from:
"Microsoft just mentioned in a Q&A session here at MIX10 in no uncertain terms that clipboard operations won't be supported on Windows Phone 7 Series..."
That does not imply, at least in my mind, that they are not implementing Copy Cut and Paste functionality *outside* of "the clipboard"...just that the way of doing it in Office does not translate properly to the "new" OS. Nothing at all about Cut Copy and Paste....
Score: -4
|"Clipboard (Office), or Cut Copy and Paste (Windows)?? You seem to be using the two interchangeably, when they are two entirely different things as far as I understand them...perhaps my understanding is lacking? "
The clipboard is the backing store for all cut, copy, paste operations in the windows O/S. However, I believe that the Office reference is actually referring to Office Mobile. In which case, the usage scenarios would be correct. Most people don't actively work on Office docs on their mobile device. A couple of years ago, we rolled out Documents To Go R/O to our 7,000 mobile users. Out of that number, only about 10 actually requested that the full version be installed so that they could edit documents on the go. That's a really small number and that was for corporate usage. The average user probably has never even opened Work or Excel Mobile, much less edited a document there.
As for needing it in the rest of the operating system; unless the cooked in functionality includes taking a number (in any of 20 different formats) and allowing it to be contextually used (rather than just click on the number and send it to dialer), then I absolutely need copy and paste. I do it daily on my phone already.
Score: -3
|As designed and showed off at mix .. win7 phone series
Has no copy/paste/cut of any form whatsoever.. IE it has no system clipboard (you cannot have copy/paste without clipboard) they are interchangeable
MS answer was "smart data sources" that pre-fill all entry fields with data gleaned from other apps/etc..
Examples given include if a field for add a new contact comes up.. and you click on name it will present you a list of "names" it knows about from any and all sources.. each field follows the same sort of rules (presumably this is extensible)
The problem is that cut and copy and paste have NOTHING to do with "smart filling" fields, they are totally different concepts and they are in no way interchangeable..
and polling of office users asking if they use advanced clipboard features, is hardly gonna get you useful information on something that is so basic to computer use since the dawn of time.. (even before windows there where cut/copy/paste in text mode wordprocessing apps .. even if it was limited to in app use, it was still there)
Score: -2
|How about we give it a chance before we call down Doom?
Score: -2
|boy!, must be running out of introductions when you include your momma.
what's next?
"i begin my long and boring story with my tropical fish that have stopped eating because of microsoft?"
Score: -7
|Well... looks like people lost their humor. Times were a lot funnier with MSFT still tops ;-)
Score: -4
|Microsoft needs to get the OS out first, then they can work on adding features and fixing the bugs, even without copy & paste they are not going to release for another 6 months, by that time we will have iPhone 4.0 and the iPad, as well as more Android phones and ChromeOS tablets.
I will repeat my prediction that WP7SOS will be the Vista of mobile.
Both operating systems are/were rushed to market after a major code reset. WP7SOS will be buggy and slow at release but will improve over the course of a year (all reports of WP7SOS shows it being slow and unresponsive). Depending on how bad the initial release is, depends on whether they need a total rebrand before releasing 7.1.
Score: -1
|I predict that 99% of predictions will not come true.
I also predict that you will make anti-MS posts on any Apple or MS relate article you see as long there is an internet.
Score: -1
|What about Google related articles?
Score: -3
|I believe there are better ways to get around copy&paste on a phone.. Android is doing that quite well, even though it DOES have that feature, I cannot remember using it. I think that if MS is doing this cleverly enough, nobody is going to miss it. But it all depends on how they get around to actually implement it. And since nobody has seen how it works in real life, its a bit early to go on and bash it, isn't it?
Score: -6
|So how the hell are you gonna insert that youtube link from your buddy via email into an IM to your other friend?
Go ahead tell me, since the only options at present for win7 phone series is.. retyping it.. even if it does let you "choose" from the full set of urls ever entered on the phone, how are you going to choose it from that popup? nm the fact that most URLs that you would be using copy/paste for are too long to display in any sort of list on any phone currently shipping, or likely to ship in the future unless pockets become large enough to shove a netbook in?
Score: -1
|"Go ahead tell me, since the only options at present for win7 phone series is.. retyping it.."
Really? I was under the impression there was no possible way of doing it, since you know, the phone won't actually be released for another 6 months. It's amazing how you know what you can and can't do on it already though...mind if I use your time machine? There's some stuff I'd like to check out.
Score: -4
|I believe it'll work kind of like how some twitter apps work.
You click on the link and it'll give you several options of what you would like to do with that link which would be share, email, or goto.
Score: -3
|Really, even office users don't use the clipboard? Hmm.. according to this paste is the #1 command used in Office.
http://blogs.technet.com...ce-user-experience.aspx
Score: -1
|At least out of the 3, Cut Copy and Paste, we know for sure, generally, Paste will be used most. For every 1 time you Copy, you would expect to Paste at LEAST once for each. Same goes for Cut. So at least 2 Pastes gets a tally, but only 1 for Copy, and 1 for Cut. But you cant have a Paste without a copy or cut anyways. My boring analysis? Yeah, I wouldn't much call it an analysis anyway, short of an observation.
Score: 0
|@wav, completely agree. Also, paste is the most used command in Office because people cut and copy from another program but those don't count towards that stat.
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|Maybe they're counting operations only in Office and most people copy & cut items from outside Office.
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|