Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing for iPod, told Sascha Sagan that Apple doesn’t really have anything against cut-and-paste on the iPhone. It just hasn’t been a high priority. Mr. Joswiak also cleared up some misconceptions about the GPS system in the iPhone 3G.

Mr. Joswiak explained that Apple has a priority list of features for the iPhone and cut-and-paste just has made the cut yet. Other things were deemed more important.

Referring to the claim by David Pogue that the GPS system in the new iPhone isn’t up to the task of providing driving directions, Mr. Joswiak said that’s not true. He said there were some "complicated issues" that prevent a driving direction application right now. [He may be referring to legal liabilities on behalf of the developer.]

Finally, referring to the delay in delivering an office suite, Mr. Joswiak surmised that the delay may be due to the fact that "There’s no cross-application file structure."

The questions by Mr. Segan reveal that not everything is always in the surface at Apple. There is typically some underlying reason, legal or technical, that causes customers to ask about Apple products. Apple doesn’t typically reveal all those reasons, but when it does, as in this case, the reasons are always illuminating.