Apple Patents: Apple – This ‘Next-Gen’ Technology Could Change The Smartphone Forever

Apple Patents: Do you remember when call waiting was a new feature offered by your telephone company? If so, you probably recall the excitement. You also know that this was well before the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone was ever even thought about.

It appears that Apple, the Cupertino-based company, has a new take on this technology. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was recently granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a “Communications system that provides user-selectable data when user is on-hold.”

If you’re not an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fanboy, or if this sounds a bit confusing, you will want to read the abstract from the patent. Here is what you need to know:

“Systems and methods for providing user-selectable data when a user is on hold are provided. A communications system can automatically detect when a user is placed on hold. Additionally, a user can indicate when he/she has been placed on hold. After it has been determined that a user is placed on hold, the system can select adaptive information according to predetermined selection criteria and present that adaptive information to the user.

A system can also generate contextual data which is related to the content of a current communication and use that contextual data (in addition to any predetermined selection criteria) to select adaptive information that is relevant to a user’s communications. Contextual data can be generated before a user is placed on hold by analyzing a communications signal in order to identify keywords that are based on the content of that communication.”

As you can see, this is not the same type of call waiting that you have been familiar with for all these years. Instead, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is thinking outside the box. The tech giant is looking for a way to make this experience more enjoyable and productive.

With the ability to take advantage of the use of  “adaptive information,” there appear to be many uses for this technology, and who better to bring it to market (potentially) than Apple. According to the patent, information is adaptive if it can be “automatically presented at times when the user may otherwise not expect to be presented with information.”

The patent was first filed for on November 16, 2011. That being said, it is a continuation of another patent which was filed by Apple in April 2007.

Michael M. Lee is listed as the only inventor.

What does this mean for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)?