I'm not huge on the idea that a general clipboard function is needed, but Apple should build in a few more ways to view mail attachments offline, apply a passcode in an email to a field (data detectors might at least try to handle this?), keep an image from the web for offline viewing, etc. There are a few more scenarios ,but they are limited.
I fear that such a catch-all method of dealing with data immediately changes the concept of the iPhone from a handy companion to a wannabe itsy-bitsy full fledged computer, which it isn't and shouldn't. I guess I'm making the old "slippery slope" argument, which I'm generally not a fan of, but with a product that garners so much attention and expectation, Apple has to be very prudent about how to present things like this, lest the iPhone become the next Newton in a certain way. I know some people want a Newton, but the problem with the Newton and any computer with such a small screen is that it tried to be a computer when it should have been a much more limited thing in concept. That's why I think the iPhone is so successful, despite being a so-called convergence device. It has a very finite set of things it does with all those different tools.
I like to talk about Macs working like a toolbox, where you have a slew of applications that each do a particular thing well and that communicate with one another well, largely through the clipboard as well as drag-n-drop. I've always disparaged Microsoft's concept of Office as being this monster swiss army knife, doing everything you need in one application, but not doing any of them especially well. Well, in a change of perspective, I feel that the iPhone is the swiss army knife to my Mac's big toolbox. I think that's a good thing. IMO clipboard operations, drag-n-drop, etc. would burden the iPhone platform.
It's like trying to use Mobile Safari for all your day's web reading. I would go cross-eyed or just get sick of scrolling so much if I had to use it all day to read on that screen only. However, it's very nice to be able to look something up here and there on it without worries. If I had to do a lot of "lifting" with data in a general way on the iPhone, I'd probably throw it on the pavement after more than a couple of hours of that.
I guess what I'd like to see is something like copy and paste and interactivity of data among apps, but much more specific, limited and finite user experience for it.
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