In praise of the lowly mouse

AnchorDesk

In praise of the lowly mouse

Patrick Houston
Editorial Director, AnchorDesk
Friday, September 19, 2003

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During a typical day, what thing do you touch most? A fork? A steering wheel? A phone? A remote control, perhaps? If you're anything like 63 percent of those surveyed recently by input device maker Logitech, the answer is...your computer mouse. Respondents said they spent more tactile time with their mouse than they did with their cell phone, their PDA--even their significant others.

Mice that click with readers

Need to upgrade your pointer? Here are three of the most popular optical mice on the market today.

Logitech Mx700 Cordless Optical MousePC

Gyration Ultra Cordless Optical Suite

Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer

As much as we use it, we take the mouse for granted. For all the respect we give it, it might as well be a rat. It deserves better. Which is why I think we should take a moment to acknowledge this lowly rodent.

I'M THINKING ABOUT THIS because last week I attended a Logitech event at which the company celebrated the shipment of its 500 millionth mouse. That's a lot of mice, enough (the company says) to circle the earth more than one and a half times. By some estimates, more than 900 million mice have been sold in all.

Doug Engelbart, the research engineer who invented the computer mouse in 1964, was at the party. (See my conversation with him here.) The first model was a bulky wooden box, with a single input button and a connection cable trailing from the rear. Someone--no one can recall who exactly anymore--said it looked like a one-eared mouse, a characterization so suitable it stuck like Super Glue.

The mouse has come a long way since then, undergoing more innovation per pound, I'd bet, than the computers with which it interacts.

For example, lately I've been playing with the new Logitech Mx700. As mice go, it costs a pretty penny--around $60. But it's a Mercedes Benz. It's an optical mouse--no trackball to clean anymore. It's cordless--one less wire to clutter the desk. Along with a scroll wheel, and the conventional left and right click buttons, it allows you to "turbo scroll" up and down, to quick switch among applications, and to move back and forth between Web pages.

Logitech isn't the only company that's continuing to move pointer technology forward. My colleague David Coursey has been looking at Microsoft's new lineup of mice; see what he has to say in his column.

MICE USED TO BE all about function. Then they were about comfort. With the onset of Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI), they've become more and more about ergonomics. But, increasingly, they're about style, too.

Douglas Engelbart, who bred the first mouse in 1963, explains what's still wrong with computer interfaces.

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Will the mouse be replaced by some other input device? Logitech CEO Guerrino de Luca doesn't think so.

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In August, Logitech unveiled its Click! family of mice, which comes in a trio of different colors. They're being marketed as a style statement. The black and silver Mx700 I've been using is pretty eye-catching, too--a real desk trophy.

This week, Logitech upped the ante again by debuting a Bluetooth cordless mouse and keyboard combo. Logitech claims the duo will also serve as a Bluetooth hub, playing traffic cop to the growing list of Bluetooth-enabled phones, PDAs, printers, and other peripherals that may soon be part of your workday paraphernalia.

For its part, Logitech has done well by the mouse. It's now a $1.1 billion company. It's outlasted many of the computer companies for whom it once provided mice, including Wang, Digital Equipment, and even Compaq (now that it's been swallowed by HP).

BUT THE MOUSE isn't perfect. At least, Doug Engelbart doesn't think so. Now 78, he still works 60 hours a week, he says, trying to find ways to take greater advantage of computers.

He contends that the language we use to communicate with our computers--whether through a mouse, graphical buttons, or drop-down menus--is crude, like speaking "pidgin English."

Why, for example, if we want to copy several pages of a digital document, do we highlight, scroll, select a menu, and click on "Copy"? Why isn't there a "Copy the next 15 pages" command?

I asked Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca what he thought about the mouse's prospects. (See that interview here.) Sure, he says, there are other options. But none are as natural as the mouse.

I have to agree. I see no other input device on the horizon that will seriously challenge the mouse, not so long as we have desktop PCs.

So I wouldn't bet against De Luca's prediction that Logitech will hit the billion-mouse mark in seven or eight years. As long as we can reasonably foresee, many of us will continue to touch this electronic rodent more than we do our loved ones.

What do you think? Do you like your mouse? Have you upgraded the one that came with your PC? TalkBack to me!

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