As consumers continue to flock towards portable computers under the form of smartphones and tablets, the thought occurs, is the mighty computer mouse, as we’ve known and loved it, for the last 30 years or so, ready go the way of the Dodo Bird and disappear?
Strictly speaking the mouse itself was a great idea for a time when although touchscreen technology existed, it was nowhere near being portable, nor practical enough to be used on a regular computer. The first time I saw a touchscreen it was on a CRT at a radio station where a keyboard would have been too noisy for use in the broadcast booth. Ironically, the sound engineer had programmed an auditory click for all the touches he made, thus defeating the purpose. In his defense though, the sound could be disabled.
Nowadays with the advent of lightweight portable tablets and smartphones, I’ve been getting a distinct feeling that the mouse is being less and less used by mainstream techno-geeks. I only use it for work purposes. I know some people still use it to play FPS games on their PCs which is fine as it’s by far the “weapon” of choice versus the console users and their control pads.
And then there’s Android. The OS created by Google, meant for the portable device market, open source, designed from the ground up for touchscreen use. Android devices are about to surpass iOS devices on portable phones, I suspect that the only reason that Google hasn’t developed an iPod type device that would run Android to play MP3s and other media is the fact that 100% of Android phones already have this capability.
There’s also the fact that 100% of Android users, potentially could have access to the main reason people use a computer in the first place; Internet and email. I haven’t used my home computer to check my emails in ages, in fact, since I’ve had an Android phone, I haven’t used my iPad for anything else than stream media through the (excellent) Air Video app, from my home media server PC.
I’m not saying I’m absolutely sure without a doubt that the mouse is extinct, all I’m gonna do for now, is hand out the We Interrupt to give you a tip of the week tip: Lads, if you’re among the last few people who still have money left to invest, after paying all your debts and taxes, then the taxes on your debts, it might be unadviseable to invest in a company that only manufactures mice. Unless it’s a cloning company that breeds lab-rats.
