I love Apple and have a iPhone myself, however, there are those who because they see no need for a particular function or feature disparage others because the Almighty Lord Jobs saw no need to incorporate it into his creation. This is the iSheep malady that so many suffer from.
From our perspective it looks like the OP just ran out, bought the iPhone, found it doesn't do something you want, and then came here to cry about it. Same scenario I (and others here) have seen thousands of times now.
If you are here you likely know more than the average person about phones. You likely know the features of most models off hand or know a rough estimate of how different models compare.
I don't know about most people but when I buy something I normally come up with a few things that are deal breakers. If feature Z is missing I move on to the next product. Apparently auto reply was important to the OP. But he failed to check and instead of looking for ways to get that feature he came and cried about it here.
Back to my first statement, after years now we see these threads all the time. Do a search and see how many threads come up asking why the iPhone didn't have copy/paste in 2007 when someone's 3 year old Treo could do it. My Razr had ring profiles and an LED, I am fully aware the iPhone has neither of them. This thread is the same as the thousands of others here on this very forum, it's old and boring.
I don't order a cheese pizza and then complain it doesn't have pepperoni on it when the delivery guy shows up at my door. Buy a phone that meets your needs next time, please.
Thank you.