The mouse that sits in our hand so much of the day is on the way out. It has served its time well. But the future is mouse-free. Thanks to the iPad.
Apple launched the mouse nearly thirty years ago as a way of pointing to places on a computer screen. It freed us from having to navigate by keyboard strokes. (Remember MS-DOS?) The mouse was the best that could be done back then. Now with the touch-screen capabilities of the iPhone, iPad, and similar devices, we don’t need mice anymore. We can use our fingers directly, and with much greater power.
It will not be long before laptops and desktops also have touch-screens. We will be interacting with our computers in the way we see in Avatar, manipulating the screen directly with our fingers. In five year’s time the mouse will be “so twentieth-century” we will come across them tucked away in boxes in the closet.
This is one reason I believe the iPad will spawn as great a breakthrough in computing as did the original Macintosh.
The mouse won’t go away completely on desktop computers because raising the hand to touch the display on top of our desks is more energy consuming than letting our arms rest on our desks as we maneuver the mouse with little exertion.
The iPad works because it’s mostly used for multimedia and not data input which is easier with a physical keyboard and mouse.