Of late, Apple has started looking for new Handwriting recognition engineers and the job profile reads ‘ advancing Apple’s handwriting recognition technology for Mac OS X’. The suggestions in the grapevine are that the handwriting technology could even surpass the Mac OS X and weave its magic on other Apple products as well including the iPhone.

 Apple Inc., beginning with their Newton Personal Digital Assistant, has had a long and illustrious history with handwriting technology. The Newton personal Digital Assistant had the marks of a humble beginning with a third party engine for handwriting recognition. At the time of it release, it generated a lot of unwanted attention, but then again, it was a first.  This was solely attributed to the calligrapher word based handwriting recognition engine the ParaGraph International Inc. developed Newton was based on. Apple then proceeded to be its own master with its own handwriting recognition technology, which it called ‘Rosetta’. With the release of Newton PDAs based on the second version of the Operating System, the handwriting recognition had remarkably improved. This was because of Apple’s Rosetta and another product of ParaGraph - Mondello. Newton’s handwriting recognition, particularly the print recognizer has been lauded by numerous reviewers, testers and users as the best in the industry, even a decade after it was introduced. 

The various subsequent versions that Apple spewed forth, though appreciated for their ingenuity, failed to make it big in the world of technology success, due to the initial bad press that the Newton personal Digital Assistant had generated back then, during its release.

 The reinvestment of Apple in handwriting recognition technology is no mean act. Its time they say, its time they have decided and the time may just be ripe for fruits of success.