15 years back in June 2007, Apple launched the original iPhone, which fundamentally changed the way we look at phones. While the first iPhone came with many industry-leading ringtones at the time, it lacked copy-and-paste functionality. In fact, it took two more years for the smartphone to gain the ability to let users copy and paste text, a feature that is now considered a standard in all smartphones. Now, a former Apple engineer has taken to Twitter to explain why the original iPhone lacked the copy and paste feature.
Did Apple copy an old Motorola feature?
Before you get your hopes up for insights into the roadblocks the team faced, I recommend tempering your expectations. According to former Apple engineer Ken Kocienda, the lack of copy and paste functionality on the original iPhone at launch was due to lack of time. The team was reportedly focused on other key features such as keyboards and autocorrect.
"Original iPhone didn't have cut/copy/paste. Infamous! The quickest explanation is that I didn't have time to do it right. I had too much keyboard, autocorrect, and text system work to do. Neither did the design team. So we passed the feature on for 1.0 ", the original iPhone didn't have cut/paste. The fastest explanation is that I didn't have time to do the keyboard and text system work either we ported the feature for 1.0 https://t.co/SLncIxohkk — Ken Kocienda (@kocienda) June 19, 2022.
The original iPhone didn't have cut/copy/paste. Notorious! The quickest explanation is that I didn't have time to do it right. I had too much keyboarding, autocorrect and text system work to do. The design team didn't make it either. So we ported the feature for 1.0. https://t.co/SLncIxohkk — Ken Kocienda (@kocienda) June 19, 2022
