The computer mouse to be obsolete in 3-5 years? NOPE!

by Doug Osborne

Could it be? The way of the computer mouse will soon become obsolete? That is what an IT analyst is predicting. According to Steve Prentice, research analyst over at Gartner, an IT analytical and consulting firm, in 3-5 years the mouse will be replaced by other human interface devices.

Prentice said: The mouse works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it’s over.

The reason for the prediction as Prentice sees it is the development of touch screens, gaming controllers like those made for Guitar Hero, Panasonic technology that detects hand movements instead of using a remote, and facial recognition technology that allows interaction through expressions.

Not everyone, however, is ready to ditch the mouse which has been around for almost 40 years. Certainly not Rory Dooley who is a Senior VP of Logitech, the world’s largest computer mouse manufacturer. According to Dooley, developing countries have yet to embrace online technology and he doesn’t see it happening any other way than by using a computer mouse:

Bringing technology, education and information to these parts of the world will be done by accessing web browsers and doing that in the ways that we are familiar with today and that is using a mouse. Let us know what you readers think. Are the days of the computer mouse numbered? Could you live mouse-free?