Apple is about to open up a new product category with the iPhone Ultra, the first foldable iPhone ever. With the launch event already announced for September 9 and with its official name still yet to be confirmed, there’s a lot we think we know about this new device. And now, with a little over a week to go before its launch, rumors suggest that in Cupertino they’re internally testing an Apple Pencil for the iPhone Ultra. An idea almost unthinkable for the iPhone Steve Jobs introduced in 2007.
An Apple Pencil designed for the iPhone Ultra
According to Mark Gurman in Bloomberg, Apple created an Apple Pencil shorter than the iPad versions. Thanks to its size, it wouldn’t stick out from the device when closed and, as the company’s other pencils already do, it would attach magnetically to the side for storage and transport, as well as pairing and charging.
Rumors put the size of the iPhone Ultra’s inner screen close to that of an iPad mini and, because of that, we should see iPad apps when we use the device unfolded; here, the Apple Pencil would make sense, although there’s quite a bit to qualify.
Steve Jobs had a very clear opinion on styluses
During the presentation of the first iPhone, Jobs referred to the extremely poor quality of the styluses of the time and favored using our fingers when it came to controlling the new device. Now, almost two decades later, Apple is considering that combination for a device that bears the same name, but is very different from the original iPhone.
For now, it looks like this Apple Pencil will remain an internal experiment. The foldable format of the iPhone Ultra substantially changes how the pencil would work when the device is unfolded, while its inner screen requires special care around a rigid tip.
Even so, the fact that Apple has gone so far as to design and test this accessory shows just how far it’s exploring the possibilities of the iPhone Ultra. Without a doubt, Apple is taking the iPhone concept farther than ever and is rapidly approaching, albeit by taking a different route with the Ultra, the iPhone Steve Jobs always dreamed of.
