Apple's patent to get contacts on the home screen is late to the game

You’d think that having an icon of a contact placed on the home screen of your phone wouldn’t seem like a process requiring a patent right? If you’re Apple though, it seems all too likely for the Cupertino based company to do just that – except that someone else somewhat already beat them to the punch. Apple filed a patent back in July 2008 that offers contact icons on the home screen – something that could make appearance in the next upcoming iPhone OS. Although this may seem like a new concept, the Android platform already has this feature implemented. There are some minor differences that Apple approaches with the patent – the icon can be modified to display other information that relates to the contact. Additionally icons can pop up in the home screen depending on the proximity of the handset to the entity – we’d gather it could closely follow something along the lines of Bluetooth discovery. Then again, it could be something totally different which is nothing out of the ordinary from Apple. Either way, it makes you wonder what they have in store for the next generation iPhone.

source: US Patent & Trademark Office via Engadgetmobile & Redmond Pie