Five Apple Patents That Hinted at Hit Products to Come

Here are other examples of Apple patents that preceded splashy announcements of new products, many of which have become hits. Whether the patents were for Apple's home-grown technologies or something it acquired, companies have learned to pay close attention to the ever-growing interests at 1 Infinite Loop.

In 2005, Apple filed a patent for "hand held electronic device with multiple touch sensing devices." About two years later, the company unveiled its first iPhone, and people walking down the street never looked up again.

Of course, some patented technologies never see the light of day. For others, it may take years. In May 2005, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple a design patent vaguely titled "electronic device." But the images clearly resembled what would be revealed five years later: the iPad.

If there was any doubt that Apple was going to replace Google Maps with its own app on the iPhone, that should have been put to rest in May 2012, when the Cupertino, California, company filed a patent for "system and method for navigation guidance with destination-biased route display." As you might have guessed, about two weeks later, Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference that it was kicking Google's app to the curb in favor of its home-cooked alternative.

However, Apple Maps didn't get off to a good start. Users complained about the errors it contained, and CEO Tim Cook issued an apology.

Before Apple Pay was announced last September, a number of the company's patents had pointed to its interest in providing a mobile payment service. One of them, filed in March 2011, was for a "method and system for payment and/or issuance of credits via a mobile device." Not a very catchy name. Thankfully, the company consolidated that to simply Apple Pay. The app was well-received by many, except for some of the largest U.S. retailers that blocked wireless transactions in their stores to prevent Apple from dominating in mobile payments.

Apple's interest in biometric security is an example where companies in that industry didn't shudder. Instead, they were elated by the attention paid to them by Apple and its rivals. Other phone makers, some of which had rudimentary fingerprint sensors predating the iPhone 5S, were less enthused.

Apple showed its interest in incorporating an embedded authentication system back in this patent filed in 2008. In 2013, the iPhone 5S came with a fingerprint scanner on the device's home button.

(bloomberg.com)