Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple is developing a new line of apple pencil Stylus accessories, launching next year alongside new iPad Pro models in spring 2027.
This would mean new generations of Apple Pencil (USB-C) and wireless charging apple pencil pro. Bloomberg suggests that these new styluses could include new battery systems, making them more easily user-replaceable to comply with upcoming EU regulation.
Current Apple Pencils are essentially not user replaceable. The battery is recharged via the USB-C port or via the stylus on the side of an iPad to enable wireless charging. But if the state of the internal battery degrades, it is not really possible to replace the component.
Today’s pencils are made with a lot of internal adhesive holding everything together and are simply not designed to be taken apart and reassembled.
The EU regulation Bloomberg refers to is Article 11 of the EU Battery Regulation, which came into force in 2023 but is not legally enforceable until February 2027. The new law requires portable batteries to be easily removable and replaceable by the end user, for the life of the product.
Obviously, the first intended target of the law is smartphones (which Apple may already be meeting due to the availability of the Self Service Repair program). But it applies more broadly, including accessories like rechargeable styluses, keyboards and mice, headphones, and more.
It remains to be seen exactly what changes Apple will have to make across all of its products to comply. AirPods are a particularly challenging example where there is no obvious way Apple could make miniaturized wireless earbuds that allow for easy battery replacement. Compare that complexity to the path to a user-replaceable battery inside an Apple Pencil, which seems a little more obvious.
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