I'm surprised that Apple haven't included a hand gesture to allow drag and drop (perhaps a 3 finger drag?). As you say, it would be very useful in some applications and surely wouldn't be that difficult to implement. Perhaps in iOS 5?

I'm sure other mobile browsers will struggle too.

Tablets are replacing laptops in many households and smartphones are everywhere. It's not reasonable to code websites for desktops alone any more.

You mean it's not reasonable for mobile OSs to be able to do something that is a basic part of Windows and I assume Apple MAC OSs functionality that the vast majority of people looking for greater convenience than laptop lumps use many times a day?

Even a smartphone can never be realistic as a main browser. Tablets, simply because of the bigger screen, could be.

So data will soon all be held in The Cloud. Fine. At which point the current ease of moving stuff between folders is exterminated?

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to prove, but you are rapidly turning what was a minor niggle on my part into an expose' of a potentially major deficiency with any touch-screen device that seriously aims to replace conventional equipment.

There is more to the internet than Twitter and Facebook.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

a potentially major deficiency with any touch-screen device

A strictly personal viewpoint- I first used (and programmed for) touchscreens about 25 years ago, I didn't like 'em then and I don't like 'em now

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The latest suggestion I've had at John Lewis is that the iPad2/Safari doesn't support Flash, and that the BBC website is Flash-based.

The JL staff probably only look at the pictures

The videos on the Beeb pages are Flash, but it seems hard to believe that Safari won't play them

The second person called in by the first of the three that ended up involved seemed to think that Flash functionality may be on its way, but as the apparent guru to the other two he could just have been being smooth.

Although that would allow Flash video to play, I can't see the relevance to the drag/drop issue. What is more likely is that Ajax and Javascript are involved.

Ummm. So you browse to a hotel website where they do the 360degree room panning video under user control. If that doesn't work, which by the sound of things it won't ....

The limitations start to surface. But better this way than after buying one . Which isn't to say I won't be doing so, but at least I will know what I'm (not) getting instead of being bamboozled by the fashionistas, marketing hype and salesmen.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There is more to the internet than Twitter and Facebook.

Couldn't agree more.

So many people now confuse the "big video game" that is the World Wide Web with the Internet.

Not on an iPad, it won't. Flash is not supported on the iPad.

Nor on the iPhone, yet oddly I am currently watching the report about Sienna Miller's phone tapping on it. iPlayer works a treat too.

But you are right - not related to the OP's problem. Worth noting that touchscreens don't play nicely with the hover attribute either (for fairly obviously reasons). Touching the screen would be mousedown and "touch and hold" invokes copy and paste.

Yes. The BBC have adapted much of their website to play nicely with the iPad, as have many other sites. I don't think they can be condemned for the fact that this particular function doesn't work on their home page. It's not as if the home page isn't functional (apart from this one small aspect of it).

I'd be interested to know how Android devices handle this.

To suggest that web designers shouldn't be allowed to provide extra functionality on more capable platforms is just ridiculous. Some text-only browsers still exist; so graphics should be forbidden?

It's certainly not impossible to implement. A quick Google shows that Android devices support drop and drag (although whether a particular browser does might be another question). I'm sure that this is something that Apple will provide in a future version of iOS. We mustn't forget that we are still in the early days of tablet devices.