As soon as they invent an anti smudge monitor I'm sold!

Seriously though, as I sit here doing work on my M700 (and checking out GBM) I have the option to touch to open, save and move the curser around - but it just doesn't feel right, and I prefer the mouse/trackpad. In slate mode of course it's different, but then I'm doing different things in slate, i.e taking meeting notes, reading PDFs, reading rss feeds.

I think that maybe we'll see complimentary input methods for different tasks, and of course, it's the software that makes use of the hardware that will drive the best input method, just like the iPhone.

Actually, the iPhone is a good example. As a phone/media player the touch method excels. But wouldn't it be good to be able to use a stylus to ink, or prop it up on a little stand and use a proper keyboard and mouse to work on an office document?

I've been using a FingerWorks iGesture pad for quite a long time, and love it as a mouse substitute. I thought the company was really going in the right direction until they sold the gesture technology (rumor says that it was purchased by Apple).

The iGesture pad has pre-programmed gestures (e.g., an "opening a jar" gesture opens a file), but also allows one to program custom gestures. Imagine being able to program a violent slashing motion on the pad to delete and permanently destroy a particularly annoying file. :-)

Although many believe that a mouse is intuitive, that's only because we've wired our brains to use them. Watching people who have never used a mouse before is a good reminder that it isn't "natural."

I remember seeing a video of Sun Microsystems' vision of the desk of the future (unfortunately, I can't track down a URL). The entire desk was an interactive surface, and handling things on the desk utilized movements similar to handling physical objects - very similar to the demos we're now seeing for touch surfaces. This really seems to be the way to go, but needs to become mass-market and mass-produced enough to make the costs attainable for a broad audience.

What has always driven me nuts when I had a slate was that while I often gripped it with both hands and my fingers touching its backside, there was no mouse/touchpad/keyboard there for my fingers to use (ie I always had to be doing something on the screen which meant bringing at least one hand around to the front. This never made sense to me and I still think a back of the screen input device would be useful.

The mouse is dead once the media center takes over. Trackpads and touchscreens alone won't squeeze out the mouse, but once the TV and computer merge, the mouse is out and the remote control is in. It's a far more familiar interface device and, as we've seen with the Wiimote, it's possible to retain the same cursor control by pointing.

As far as plain old desktops are concerned, while I generally dislike trackpads, I believe I would enjoy a large multi-touch trackpad in place of a mouse. Most people use a mousepad under their mouse anyway (even when they don't need to), so replacing the mouse with a trackpad would lead to less desk clutter. Also, the main reason I don't like trackpads is because they're dead center beneath the spacebar, but that would not be an issue with an external pad in my mouse's place.

Melissa: that FingerWorks iGesture pad is exactly the type of peripheral I had in mind. I might need to keep an eye for that on eBay.

I love the mouse skeleton picture! That's one big mouse. The mouse is a metaphor. It's not like the founding fathers used a mouse when they wrote the Constitution. Another metaphor will emerge to replace the keyboard and the mouse. I really like the pen metaphor used in Tablets because I found that very intuitive. But, I have a problem with needing to keep up with that one special pen. I like the finger touch metaphor even more for some tasks but the finger is a bit imprecise for detail work. I can't wait to be able to do the whole "Minority Report" thing with my multi-touch surface computer thingy, but I'm not sure that will rule the day either. I like that options are emerging and it's not like we all need to do the same thing!

Ah... I found the video of Sun's desk of the future (the Starfire project). Note: it's VERY corny, but the vision exhibited is cool. http://www.asktog.com/starfire/starfire.mp4

For office work and other normal daily tasks the mouse has a lot of competition these days, but in gaming the mouse still has an advantage. When a device can be used with the accuracy and speed as a mouse for FPS games and/or other quick action games that require the use of a keyboard and a peripheral then the mouse may die.

I could see the mouse being replaced by a keyboard with an integrated touchpad, trackball, or trackstick (as they are, for the most part, with traditional laptops). I do not see any of the currently available 3rd generation solutions (pen, touch, multi-touch) making much of an inroad into the desktop.

The problem is that one needs accuracy as well as ease of use. When you are holding the screen, you can do that by pointing. However, when the screen is an arm's length away, it's hard to be accurate and it's inconvenient to move your hand that far from the keyboard.

I think we will have to wait for the 4th or 5th generation pointing devices (voice, eye movement, thought?) before the mouse starts to die.

Just remember, your keyboard still has the 1st generation cursor keys on it.

Interesting that he would use the iPhone as an example. I've never used a phone with a mouse, so it kind of makes me question his train of thought.

When I first used an IBM ThinkPad with a trackpoint, for me at least, the mouse died. That was over ten years ago and I have bought trackpoint keyboards and trackpoint laptops exclusively, since.

As a touch typist, I can say that multitouch will /never/ me an acceptable interface. You want to keep your hands on the keys at all times. Even a screen keyboard, as if a dual-screen machine, must have a keyboard feel... and then, if you have to use your finger to manipulate the GUI leaving the keyboard home position, it's that much harder to start typing. No, multitouch doesn't cut it.

The only competition I see is from voice, but while I can type a letter with voice recognition, my voice would peter out dictating a novel. And what about programming, where you are always moving the cursor. Spreadsheets and data entry to various forms, ditto.

Yeah, the mouse is dead - but the direct touch screen interface is too limited.

I've always been of the opinion that touch interfaces, specifically touch screens or panels are excellent as consumer based interfaces. That is to say that they're great for broad action kind of applications.

This in comparison to mice, keyboards, digital pens and their ilk which are more geared as work interfaces. I can't imagine doing detailed Photoshop work with a touch interface without interacting with it from a pen or mouse as the intermediary. Nor can I imagine someone doing intense accounting work on a spreadsheet without a keyboard, and mouse/touchpad/trackpoint.

Touch interfaces just seem to work best where actions are limited. Like web browsing. Or playing music. Things that require "buttons" instead of actual data input. I don't think the mouse is going away any time soon.

Cool mouse

Given that most people spend most of their computing time on a desktop at work and that mouses cost nothing I don't see them going away any time soon. This also means that software will continue to be written with the mouse in mind as opposed to fingers. Touch will continue to be a niche product for a long time to come.

In short, the reason I say the mouse isn't going away any time soon can be summed up in one word: inertia.

There may be some great substitutes for the mouse out there, some gaining publicity. But people are used to the mouse, despite its limitations/irritations.

I had to laugh when Mike Elgan talked about multi-touch operating systems putting a quick death to the mouse -- particularly Windows 7. 2 to 4 years for the mouse to die due to Windows 7? It'll take 2 to 4 years for Windows 7 to come out, hopefully with better public opinion than Vista. Once people accept Windows 7, and providing it has appropriate 'mouse-killing technology' implemented reasonably well, then we could see the death a couple years after that.

Apple could show more hope, especially with their stake in multi-touch. But it still bothers me that to this day we have never seen anything shy of consistent resistance from Brother Jobs toward embracing and pushing tablet technology. I can only wonder how that could affect adoption of multi-touch screen technology in the Mac lineup. I am amazed, however, at the speed at which Apple has cranked out releases of OS X. (Though I haven't kept up with just how significant the improvements have been with each release.)

I like touch/active digitizer a lot better than the mouse for a natural feeling implementation of the 'point and grunt' aspect of computer usage. But it's obvious that it hasn't caught on as quick as we'd like. I think that people (like me) who like to keep a convertible in 'laptop mode' for the keyboard, but still poke the screen, will continue to have mixed feelings when there isn't a stand or something to brace the screen with.

I do think that it will take touch/active digitizer/multi-touch integration with video for it to catch on significantly. The multi-touch trackpads are intriguing, if not nice, but ultimately they are still trackpads, and fall short of the 'iPhone WOW power'.

As for the comment above claiming that touch devices work best for things 'that require "buttons" instead of actual data input' isn't that precisely what a mouse is for? My apologies if I just don't get it.

Warner, I agree that James Kendrick's article is intriguing. What bothers me about the idea of the 'Instinctive Interface' is how poorly (imo) Microsoft has done in Office with the 'let me think for you' implementations, such as AutoFormat. Maybe your mileage is better than mine. But if I am irritated over such simple 'instinctive' attempts, how am I to expect that a full II will work even near flawlessly? Maybe I'm just too skeptical. But James' description sound nice if it would just work right.

Anyway, I can't imagine the mouse phasing out too rapidly. Just look at how long the floppy took to die.

I used to manage a retail store where one of the products was the Wacom Tablets. The weren't selling. So I hooked one up to every computer in the place and removed the mice to force the staff to learn how to use them. Man, did they complain for the first few days. After two weeks I put the mice back next to each computer. A week later only one of them had been plugged back in. Wacom sales went through the roof. If you give people a good look at an alternative you will get progress.

The mouse was once a revolutionary advance in the way you could interact with a computer. And it wont go away fast as it is still the first way most people learn to use a computer. But as new technologies come along that give us a richer more productive interaction with the PC they will slowly but surely bite into the market share of the mouse.

Gordon