Computer Mouse to Die Imminently says Gartner

A Gartner analyst has made a rather courageous prediction about the future of one of the most iconic computer items around; Steve Prentice says that the 36-year old device called the mouse will disappear by 2013.

The expert told BBC news that the mouse is fine for the desktop environment but is nearly useless for home entertainment or for working on a notebook; he probably forgets that the mouse was never designed for such purposes.

The illustrious pointing device originally started life as a block of wood and was invented by Douglas Engelbart; Prentice says that face and voice recognition technology as well as touchscreens will eventually replace the mouse as the preferred pointing device.



The Apple iPhone and the Nintendo Wii console also introduced new technologies to the larger public; the former brought the tilting mechanism that has now been copied elsewhere while the Wiimote introduced a more proactive feedback mechanism.

Unfortunately, both rely on people being more active than they really are; notice that people use mouse normally on a flat surface, for precise control and manipulation, when they are seated and for quite long periods.

Also prices of competing pointing technologies have yet to fall down before the mouse disappear; anyone remember the Nintendo NES Power Glove which was hinted as one mouse replacement device?