Xerox invented the mouse for use on their minicomputer word processing systems but Steve Jobs saw and adopted it and as in so many things in computing the rest of the industry eventually followed Apple's lead kicking and screaming all the way to the bank.
Over the years I have used a variety of pointing devices including rollerballs, tablets, a variety of corded and cordless mice, and trackpads on laptops. After reading about the gestures, in OS X 10.7 (Lion) I invested in a wireless trackpad for my iMac. After a week or ten days with the trackpad and Magic Mouse both sitting on my desktop, I realized I was not using the Magic Mouse at all. After a few more weeks of gathering dust I pulled the MM's batteries, and relegated it to the
unused technology drawer beside its corded sibling.
At this point I cannot envision any reason to go back to using a mouse. The trackpad is quicker, easier, more intuitive, and with gestures far more flexible. , Wile I was never completely satisfied with laptop trackpads, they were
- Too small
- in a fixed location in the center of the keyboard.
The wireless trackpad overcomes both of these limitations quite handily.
After my experience and considering the gesture technology that is inherent in Lion, my questions are
- after all these years is Apple moving toward phasing out of the mouse from their product lines?
- Is the mouse even needed with a trackpad and gestures?
I'm not suggesting this will happen in the next year to two, but what about three or four years from now?
