A newly filed patent suggested that future Apple MacBooks could have a built-in Apple Pencil for doodling on the touchscreen.

Patently A patent published this week by Apple shows a MacBook with a dock tray for devices like the Apple Pencil, blurring the line between the company's laptops and the iPad Pro. The Apple Pencil would be placed above the number keys where the Touch Bar and actually replaces the function of the F key when not in use.

"Uniquely, a high-end lighting system is built into the retainer and Apple Pencil, allowing the Pencil to replace the top row of F keys with a fully functional key symbol illuminated by the Apple Pencil," the site explains. This is how it looks in practice:

However, the diagram only goes so far. So designer Sarang Sheth created these mockups for Yanko Design.

Interestingly, Sheth's take still leaves a bit of space for the Touch Bar, which is said to be axed soon. Here, one can access Siri and other apps.

Of course, a patent application is no guarantee that the ideas contained in it will actually appear in a commercial product. Apple is notorious for its high number of patent applications, filing more than 5,000 in 2020 alone. Some of these will eventually become part of products that can be purchased at the local Apple store, but many will not.

Whether this will be one of the ideas that will be commercialized remains to be seen, but it is worth remembering what Steve Jobs once said about the idea of a touchscreen laptop:

Jobs once said at a 2010 event, "We did a lot of user testing on this thing. We did a lot of user testing on this and found it didn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. You can have a great demo, but after a short time it starts to get tired. If you touch it for a long time, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn't work well. The ergonomics are terrible. The touch surface wants to be level.

Apple, of course, is now under new management. Tim Cook has shown in the past that he is very happy to defy Steve Jobs' orthodoxy (Jobs was famously opposed to the stylus idea), and it is quite possible that he will do so again.

But for what it's worth, I'm with Jobs on this one. I own a second-generation Surface Laptop, which supports the touchscreen and Surface Pen. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used the touchscreen, and most of those times were to show that the touchscreen was there. I have never purchased a Surface Pen, but have tried others. The screen wobbles when pressed, and I have to lean over the keyboard to draw.

Apple may be thinking of ways around these problems, or maybe this patent is a way to claim rights to the idea in case someone else tries. Either way, it makes for interesting concept art.