Wacom broadens digital pen interoperability in partnership with Microsoft

Wacom has now made official that it will be working with Microsoft as it enters a new stage Universal Pen Framework (UPF) initiative. Microsoft will now be licensing its Microsoft Pen protocol to Wacom. What this means is that Wacom’s digital pen solutions will soon incorporate both Microsoft Pen and Wacom Active ESTM Pen protocols in the near future. With the two working together, we could indeed see applications as early as the end of 2016.Microsoft Ink was announced at its Build 2016, which was a gist of things to come from the company in this direction. Bryan Roper, Executive Demo Lead at Microsoft who showcased Microsoft Ink's capabilities later put out a tweet stating that Wacom and Microsoft are even working on a pen that will work across a number of pen-enabled devices.(Also Read: Microsoft shows why Pen and Ink beat Pencil and Paper)Microsoft Ink API is indeed an interesting one. In short, it basically lets Windows obtain more than just 2D data from the stylus when users scribble on them. Looks like the future of the stylus does lie in the hands of Microsoft, but for now, we have to wait until the first products come out and then compare them with the Apple Pencil.For now, Microsoft will be integrating Windows Ink API into its own apps like Maps, Microsoft Edge and Office with the upcoming release of Windows 10 called the Anniversary Update.