You’re probably using a mouse today, but you may never buy one again.

All the planets are aligning against this humble pointing device.

The computer mouse has long been associated with the PC, but in fact it was invented during the John F. Kennedy administration (in 1963) by Silicon Valley engineers Douglas Engelbart and Bill English. 

The mouse was nothing but a lab rat until the Xerox Star shipped in 1981. Though it was the first time anyone could buy a mouse, few did. The Star was overpriced ($16,000 — wow!) and poorly marketed. (As if marketing would have made much of a difference …)

The IBM PC came out that year, too — without a mouse. But when the Apple Macintosh hit in January1984 (remember Big Brother?), the mouse went mainstream and has been with us ever since.

Now, Gartner analyst Steve Prentice says the mouse’s dominance as the leading pointing devices may be over within two to four years.

Check out Datamation for the reasons why …

And check out the Xerox promo video on YouTube!

(And thanks the DigiBarn, the computer museum, for the image.)

Tags: apple corp., datamation, digibarn, ibm, kennedy, macintosh, mouse, pc, youtube

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