The Mouse is Dead…

By | July 18, 2008
6 Comments

MouseNotWorking.jpg

…long live visual computing.

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice is predicting that the computer mouse will be dead in 3-5 years.

When I first read that headline I scoffed. But then I asked myself, “when was the last time I used a mouse?” I’m sure I’ve touched a mouse during the second Bush administration, but I realize now that I haven’t used a mouse daily in 3 or 4 years. Instead I’ve used the touchplates on the various laptops I’ve owned. The transition was so natural that I hadn’t noticed.

And the touchplate is getting more powerful. Try duplicating the two-finger gestures that Apple is pioneering for the iPhone and Macbook Air with a mouse. The Wiimote might be the harbinger of great things too.

So I’ll go along with this prediction. In 3-5 years most people will have moved on from the mouse and nobody will miss it.

But it was an essential first step to visual computing.

  • Ettanin

    Probably not gamers though. :) We still need all the hot keys on the right hand. My mice have only grown more and more advanced over the years. So far, nothing beats mouse-look in fps/rpg/pvp games.

  • Anonymous

    RIP, already

  • https://blog.speculist.com Phil Bowermaster

    Long live the mouse! I’ll give mine up when they pry it from the fingers of my cold, dead hand. I can use the laptop keyboard and trackpad, but always use the real thing when I’m sitting at my own desk. Trackpads lack precision. And sue me, I like big loud clacky keys.

  • Stephen Gordon

    Ettanin:

    Back when I was playing Quake all the time I found that the mouse keyboard combo beat everything else. One of the big reasons I’m not a huge HALO player is that I could never duplicate that gaming experience with the Xbox controller.

    The game I play obsessively now – Age of Empires III – is an RPG. I have no problem playing that with the touchplate.

    Anyway, you may be right. Gamers might preserve the mouse long after most others have abandoned it. Sort of like audiophiles preserving turntables.

    I wonder if special game oriented mice might be developed.

    Oh, never mind.

  • http://www.qbitonline.com Qbit

    Instead of touchplates…people will go to touch screens. Like the On_screen touch panel controller here: http://qbitonline.com/index.php?cPath=454_461_560

  • DuckReconMajor

    I despise touch pads. The only bearable mobile solution for me is the TrackPoint, which I only use on the few occasions I can’t find a flat surface for my travel mouse.

    Why does this analyst say “The mouse works fine in the desktop environment”, then go on as if the entire population of people who work at a desktop doesn’t exist? Even among laptop users, there will be people (like me) who will always prefer a mouse to other forms of control.