To be fair they do have far better copy and paste than Android does.
When I had an iPhone I'd often accidentally select text when I didn't want to. It was not reliable what it was going to do. Is it going to scroll this time, or think I'm selecting text?
From what I've experienced of android in the last few weeks since I switched, I like it. It seems solid and reliable. There's no ambiguity there. I click 'select text', select some, then go some place else and paste it. It's easy.
I love how you hold your finger down some place to get a contextual menu... then just select paste. I'm not sure how you could make it any easier TBH.
So FWIW, I much prefer Android copy+paste.
They could make it work the same way on text that isn't editable rather than making me dig into a menu. That's just one idea.
Not to mention that without multitasking copy/paste is much less useful.
Really? I use copy/paste all the time on both my iPhone and iPad, and iOS 4 is still in the future.
Copy and paste in iPhone is universal, or about as close to that as it needs to be. It works on essentially all text, and basically the same way in all places. In contrast Android copy and paste is much more selectively available. It is often hidden in menus that are different from application to application.
Copy and paste is one of those things that has to be done the same way everywhere to achieve its height of usability. My Nexus One does not live up to my standards for that.
Copy and paste on Android works just the same, if not better. On Mobile Safari, for instance, I always select some text when I just want to scroll or zoom in some part of the page. This doesn't happen on my Android phone (but this could be just because Android waits a bit more before acknowledging the gesture).
Apple does a lot of choices that are aesthetics over functionality. A physical trackball/trackpad or arrow key pad, for instance, is invaluable when you need to move to some specific point in text. But Apple touchscreen devices just have the home button, to look more futuristic. And revolutionary.