Apple Patent Hints at iWeb for iPad

Apple’s iWeb may be destined to join Keynote, Pages and Numbers on the iPad. The tip off that Apple’s Web site design app may be expanding beyond the Mac OS X desktop comes courtesy of a patent filing detailing gesture-based electronic document authoring.

iWeb for the iPad. Maybe.Apple’s iWeb may be headed for the iPad

According to Patently Apple, patent application 20110074710 details which iOS-based applications are designed to work with touch screen-based display, and it turns out iWeb is on that list. While Keynote, Pages and Numbers are all available for the iPad now, iWeb is still missing.

iWeb on the Mac lets users build Web pages without needing to know any coding skills. It offers drag and drop design features, much like Pages, and includes support for blogging, photo albums, and managing Web sites via MobileMe.

Just because Apple listed iWeb in its patent application doesn’t mean the company has plans to bring the app to the iPad. Offering iWeb for the iPad, however, sounds like a good idea since it would offer a touch-based tool for graphically designing and publishing Web sites on the go.