It isn't "built-in" (or not built-in) into the iPad device, but rather in the operating system. Indeed there is no handwriting recognition built into the curren

It isn't "built-in" (or not built-in) into the iPad device, but rather in the operating system. Indeed there is no handwriting recognition built into the current release of iOS10, but certain hints are visible in the beta of iOS11 that will be released in a few months (Notes can search handwritten notes) and CoreML presumably can be bent/repurposed for the sake of enabling this kind of capability. Anyway Apple's lack of emphasis on handwriting as an input method goes back to the (ahead-of-its-time, ultimately unsuccessful) Newton platform of the mid-to-late nineties, whose handwriting recognition was both ahead of its time and ultimately limiting.