Is this rocket science? Tech giants struggle with copy and paste

When I first got my iPhone which was on the day it was released, I was surprised that I couldn't search its contents, but I was even more surprised when I found out I couldn't copy and paste data from one application to another. I could do all of those things on smart phones from years ago, my Palm, and also an early Sprint phone, but not on the cutting-edge iPhone. It was two years before Apple was able to add copy and paste functions to the iPhone operating system. Now, Microsoft is facing the same problem.

Engadget reports that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series, won't have copy and paste when it becomes available later this year.:

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

And:

Update: We just super-double-ultra-plus-confirmed this with Microsoft -- Windows Phone 7 Series will not have copy and paste functionality. There is a data-detection service built into the text-handling API that will recognize phone numbers and addresses, but Microsoft says most users, including Office users, don't really need clipboard functionality. We... respectfully disagree?

Apple first, and now Microsoft. It could take years before copy and paste is added, says Engadget. Wow. Copy and paste must be a very difficult technical problem on smart phones.

Microsoft said it wil spend $9.5 billion on research and development this year. I hope a few billion dollars of that budget goes on solving the copy and paste problem in smart phones. Microsoft could gain a significant lead over Apple.