There’s more evidence that the Apple Pencil will come to the iPhone in a newly granted patent (number 9,753,556) dubbed “devices and methods for manipulating user interfaces with a stylus.” And perhaps the Mac, as well.
In the patent, Apple notes that the use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. The company says that user interfaces can be manipulated with either finger or stylus inputs. Finger inputs are more common than stylus inputs, in part because existing methods that use styluses are “cumbersome and inefficient.”
Obviously, Apple thinks that it has overcome such problems (and, well, it has) with the Apple Pencil. Currently, the pencil only works with the iPad. However, Apple’s patent mentions it being used with various handheld devices (which certainly includes the iPhone), as well as desktop computers and laptops.
Apple has also filed for other patents — including 9,648,7040 — that hints at the Apple Pencil will come to the iPhone sooner or later.
Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day.
