5 ms·

I don't think MS ever bought into it. I think MS realized that what Apple had been saying about Cut/Paste and multi-tasking was true. They're hard problems to s

by steverb 16y ago

I don't think MS ever bought into it. I think MS realized that what Apple had been saying about Cut/Paste and multi-tasking was true. They're hard problems to solve on a small touch interface. MS chose to release earlier without those features rather than waiting another 3 - 6 months. They were already far enough behind the market that they probably felt they couldn't wait any longer.

wvenable 16y ago
Except that Android and WebOS already had solutions to the problem and no doubt the WP7 software stack already supported it all. Ultimately, Apple's solutions to these so-called "hard problems" weren't revolutionary. The net result was Microsoft produced a device comparable to the previous generation. I suspect they would have taken those 3-6 months to add the features (in whatever form they could come up with) if they knew that Apple was going to do it.
- rimantas 16y ago
  Except Android's copy-paste still sucks and early solution for multitasking brought a wast selection of task killer apps.
  - Pewpewarrows 16y ago
    I'd rather have a mostly-good feature than no feature at all, or no comparable feature for the next year or two.
    - glhaynes 16y ago
      I think this is exactly the difference between the "Android philosophy" and the "iOS philosophy" when it comes to design. I'm glad both exist; I'd personally generally like to see things mature and great upon initial release, especially because of how long you tend to be saddled with the negatives of a bad initial design. But there are people and usages that want/need features more than they want refinement, and that's fine too.
  - SwellJoe 16y ago
    Those task killer apps were just idiotic. There were numerous blog posts debunking the need for them, or their utility. Systems that were not being micro-managed performed better than those where the user tried to outsmart the automatic task management. And, the only complaint I have about copy-paste is how rarely it is available. It works great, when the option is in the menu.
contextfree 16y ago
I don't know about multitasking, but they did specifically say that adding cut and paste in the first update was a change in plans in response to feedback, and wasn't on their original schedule. They originally thought the features they intended to replace c&p (it detects things like phone numbers in text and automatically links them to the relevant applet, with the text auto-pasted in) would work better for covering the common cases. cite: "And I wanted to announce today that we've heard feedback from a lot of people who have had our technical preview. There's a feature we're going to bring onto the phones in early 2011, copy and paste. This is a feature that we initially did not put into our development schedule, because we focused instead on things like automatic touching of phone numbers and touching of addresses, but we're hearing from our customers, and we're going to get this feature in, so everyone who buys a Windows Phone this holiday will be able to get an update with copy and paste in early 2011." http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/2010/10-11windowsphone7.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/2010/10-11wind...

by steverb 16y ago

wvenable 16y ago

Except that Android and WebOS already had solutions to the problem and no doubt the WP7 software stack already supported it all. Ultimately, Apple's solutions to these so-called "hard problems" weren't revolutionary. The net result was Microsoft produced a device comparable to the previous generation. I suspect they would have taken those 3-6 months to add the features (in whatever form they could come up with) if they knew that Apple was going to do it.

rimantas 16y ago
Except Android's copy-paste still sucks and early solution for multitasking brought a wast selection of task killer apps.
- Pewpewarrows 16y ago
  I'd rather have a mostly-good feature than no feature at all, or no comparable feature for the next year or two.
  - glhaynes 16y ago
    I think this is exactly the difference between the "Android philosophy" and the "iOS philosophy" when it comes to design. I'm glad both exist; I'd personally generally like to see things mature and great upon initial release, especially because of how long you tend to be saddled with the negatives of a bad initial design. But there are people and usages that want/need features more than they want refinement, and that's fine too.
- SwellJoe 16y ago
  Those task killer apps were just idiotic. There were numerous blog posts debunking the need for them, or their utility. Systems that were not being micro-managed performed better than those where the user tried to outsmart the automatic task management. And, the only complaint I have about copy-paste is how rarely it is available. It works great, when the option is in the menu.

contextfree 16y ago

I don't know about multitasking, but they did specifically say that adding cut and paste in the first update was a change in plans in response to feedback, and wasn't on their original schedule. They originally thought the features they intended to replace c&p (it detects things like phone numbers in text and automatically links them to the relevant applet, with the text auto-pasted in) would work better for covering the common cases. cite: "And I wanted to announce today that we've heard feedback from a lot of people who have had our technical preview. There's a feature we're going to bring onto the phones in early 2011, copy and paste. This is a feature that we initially did not put into our development schedule, because we focused instead on things like automatic touching of phone numbers and touching of addresses, but we're hearing from our customers, and we're going to get this feature in, so everyone who buys a Windows Phone this holiday will be able to get an update with copy and paste in early 2011." http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/2010/10-11windowsphone7.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/2010/10-11wind...