Logitech Makes 1 Billionth Mouse

Smivs writes "Logitech has hailed as a major landmark the production of their one billionth computer mouse. The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered. 'It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,' said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley. 'Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.' The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40. It was 9 December 1968 when Douglas C. Engelbart and his group of researchers at Stanford University put the first mouse through its paces."

Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

McDonalds anyone?

Sheesh...

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

What about pencil/ballpoint pen companies?

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

"A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. A billion seconds ago, the Beatles changed music. A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning,"
  -- Robert Goizueta, CEO (1980-1997) Coca-Cola Company

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

does anyone have a clue what was happening 1B seconds ago?

The Tenerife disaster [wikipedia.org] occurred on March 27 [wikipedia.org], 1977 [wikipedia.org], which is about 1 billion seconds, or 31 years [google.com] and 251 days [google.com], ago.

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

Not just the processing, but the design. It's not like someone mixes up a big bowl of ground beef, a few eggs, spices and whatever, then roughly forms round-ish patties before shipping them out.*

Everything produced for McDonald's is the result of a very stricly controlled manufacturing process to ensure that every meat-like patty, every tallow-spiked fry, every creepily long-lasting chocolate shake is the same to within very strict tolerances, whether you eat it in Miami or Whitehorse.

Make no mistake; that Quarter Pounder with Orange Dairy-Like Substance(TM) is as much the product of a technical manufacturing process as your Cordless Trackball with Media Whiz-Bang!(TM).

.

*That only happens at good burger joints.

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

Make no mistake; that Quarter Pounder with Orange Dairy-Like Substance(TM) is as much the product of a technical manufacturing process as your Cordless Trackball with Media Whiz-Bang!(TM).

Same nutritional value, mind you.

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

You assume that there isn't any mouse in the burger.

Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened?

That probably means something more like 976562500 hard drives.

1 billion is not uncommon for some things

Large manufacturers of small parts like screws can easily reach the billion mark in a decade.

The same goes for "categories" of parts like mice, computers, microprocessors, phones, etc.

I wonder how many CPUs Intel has shipped? I wonder how many phones the pre-1983-breakup version of AT&T shipped. I wonder how many screws and fasteners a large screw-making company ships in 10 years?

No, a billion may be a milestone but it's not huge, not when you put it in context.

Re:1 billion is not uncommon for some things

Don't know about Intel, but ARM shipped 1 billion processors last quarter, according to their Q3 results statement [arm.com].

Other things that must ship in the billions: screws, nails, paper clips, thumbtacks, staples, sweets (candy), baked beans, soda, LEDs (actually almost any discrete electronic component), copier paper, post-it notes, coins, pens, pencils, bin liners ... it's too easy.

Days numbered?

The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered.

[citation needed]

No seriously, where is there a mainstream commentator predicting the demise of the mouse, and backing it up with hard data and logic?

And still no bluetooth trackballs!

Come on, you can make, and sell, 1 billion mice; how hard can it be to make a minor variant of the Cordless Optical TrackMan that uses Bluetooth instead of an RF dongle???

I can't imagine the market is smaller than for some of the weird niche mice I've seen out there...

Dan Aris

You are our one billionth customer!

I wonder if when they ship this one billionth mouse to a customer, they will include in the box a flashing ad telling him that he is the one billionth customer and should click here to claim his prize.

Yes it is true. Very rare

It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,"

Yes, a billionth of most things are microscopic in size. So shipping it is quite difficult. Great job logitec.

Death of the Mouse?!

FTFA:

But sounding the death knell for the device is Gartner analyst Steve Prentice who said "the mouse will no longer be mainstream in three to five years."

Yeah... right... it won't be mainstream in 3-5 years... sorry, but I call BS.

Touchscreens and facial recognition software will not replace the mouse in an office environment. It won't replace it for gaming. Hell, it won't replace it period.

Take gaming as a simple example. When I'm playing WoW, I'm often looking elsewhere, eating a snack, drinking a beer, or talking to my wife who is sitting on the other side of the room... the last thing I'm going to want to do is stare at the screen and make funny faces at it to move the mouse. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.

Don't get me wrong here; touch screens are a huge boon and will have a place in specialized industries; auto interfaces, shared spaces, Cell Phones, etc.

But making the claim that it will no longer be mainstream and large companies, lets say HR Block, will drop the mouse and replace everything with a touch screen and facial recognition software is the biggest load of crap I've heard in quote a long time.

Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las

That's weird. Why on earth would a Mac user not simply use the supplied Apple brand mouse? Oh, right.

Speaking to your criticism directly, I have about half a dozen Logitech mice, spanning a decade, that all work flawlessly. The only reason I have bought more since the first one 11 years ago has been to keep pace with technology (optical, wireless, 2d scroll wheel, laser, etc.)

Then again, it's not like I use mine for grueling tasks like ejecting CDs.

Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las

I too am a big fan of Logitech mice. My main computer rig actually sports a Razer Diamondback these days, but my laptop mouse is Logitech, as are the mice on my workstation and server rack's KVM at work. Over the years I've had countless ones. Like you, I mostly have upgraded to keep pace with technology: moving to one with a scroll wheel, moving to an optical, moving to USB, getting a mouse with more buttons, etc.

Like all heavy use devices I've had a few failures (I've had 2 Logitech mice wear out on me), but overall compared with other mice I've still noticed them to be of a pretty high quality. When I used to work as a tech at a college many years ago, I can't count how many Microsoft Intellimouses had a scroll wheel that was jammed where it couldn't be moved anymore.

Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las

Holy crap you're right! My parents have a Mighty Mouse on their iMac. I've been trying to right click with it for 2 weeks, with no luck, and its been driving me nuts. I just went upstairs and tried by lifting my index finger when I clicked, and voila: context menu! My reaction: "stupidest mouse ever."

This has to be the worst human interface design ever. This goes way beyond non-intuitive and is in face counter-intuitive. Why should I have to lift one finger to press with another? Point-and-click is now point-lift-and-click? Its going to take forever to explain this to my mom!

Seriously, who comes up with this crap? And how does it ever get past the testing stages? Does Apple deliberately retard their accessories in order to support a strong third party market?

I wish Apple would stop sacrificing function for obscure coolness. "Check it out, my Apple mouse can tell where my fingers are! Sure its a pain in the ass to use it, but IT CAN TELL WHERE MY FINGERS ARE!!!"

"Yeah? Well my Logitech mouse works right." Suck it, Steve.

Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las

In fairness, they've improved it a lot for the mighty mouse 2. All you need to do for a right click, is to point your mouse at the screen, and slap your forehead with your left hand until the context menu appears.

Re:What about Microsoft?

Logitech have been shipping mice since 1981, giving them almost a two decade head start on Microsoft. Their early mice used balls and so needed replacing after a few years. Over the last 26 years, they have made mice that have been rebranded and shipped by numerous OEMs, including Apple, HP and Dell. For most of the '80s and '90s, any serious computer user had a logitech mouse (and less serious ones often had a cheap Logitech mouse with their computer maker's brand on it). Calling them a minority player is like calling Microsoft a minority player in the desktop OS market.

Re:What about Microsoft?

their first mouse was a rebranded logitech.

Re:What about Microsoft?

Microsoft is an excellent mouse-making company. It's a shame people keep complaining about their failed OS sideline.

Mice?

Whoever makes cockroaches passed the billion mark a long time ago. And using a model with very few variations, too.

Re:One billionth? Ha, that's nothing

McDonald's has probably shipped a billion mice, too.

Re:Douglas Engelbart 1968 mouse demo video

Clicky:

http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html [stanford.edu]

Unless you really, really like using tags (or it isn't available...), "Plain Old Text" works pretty well.