Logitech Makes 1 Billionth Mouse 456
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."
One billionth? Ha, that's nothing (Score:3, Interesting)
I think McDonald's would disagree with you.
Re:Do their software drivers (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, I hope so! It'll go great with the CDs from my last 3 malfunctioning Logitech mice.
Toothpicks? (Score:3, Interesting)
"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."
Gum? Pencils? Paper? Soft drink? Bag of chips? Stick of RAM? Screwdriver? Television set? Surely some of these items have been sold more than a billion times by a single company...
razor blades (Score:4, Interesting)
i believe that the razor blade manufacturers hit their billionth mark within a decade of beginning production. yes, few companies ship billions- but logitech hit billion from multiple models. razor companies from the same model blade.
And still no bluetooth trackballs! (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Douglas Engelbart 1968 mouse demo video (Score:4, Interesting)
http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html [slashdot.org]
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:2, Interesting)
I wouldn't be surprised if Budweiser ships (far in excess of?) 1 billion units a year (that's only 20 beers for 50 million people, or 50 beers for 20 million people, I'm not real sure how many people are low brow enough to drink Bud, but that seems pretty reasonable).
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
My logitech does more (Score:2, Interesting)
Got a new logitech mouse recently. New to me anyway, it's a G5
Has 2 buttons on it to increase or decrease the mouse sensitivity in real time. I don't play many games these days, but I could see that being very useful for first person shooters.. zoom in with a sniper rifle.. decrease mouse sensitivity at the press of a button ..etc
Also the mouse has a weight cartridge with adjustable weight, so each user can adjust the physical feel of the mouse to their liking.
Plus it's laser and my old optical one sucked.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
You all fail at geek... (Score:2, Interesting)
"Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 20 billion per year"
Re:Bus mouse (Score:3, Interesting)
Not to mention the wonderful years of playing with your config.sys and autoexec.bat file so you could make sure all your drivers loaded right (or the bastardized add-on sound card I got for my first laptop that plugged into the parallel port with a pass-through for the printer, but drivers that needed to be loaded in DOS which squeezed the precious memory even more).
I think it gave an inherent understanding of the hardware to people who grew up with them (and used them).
I feel like the people who grew up repairing their cars and bemoaning how automated they have become. :)
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:3, Interesting)
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft. Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out there.
I bought my Microsoft Trackball optical when logitech stopped making the trackball i liked, and I have never looked back. The software was great (programmable "program dependant" buttons with macros) (If you stuck to the version 4.1) I even bought 5 of them from Microcenter when I learned they were being discontinued.
I still have 4 new in the box, and I see they are going for about $150 on ebay now.
The one I am using right now is... 4 years old I think.
Millard Fillmore? Please explain (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about Microsoft? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Interesting)
McDonalds ships a buttload of stuff to their chains all around the world. Their supply logistics are pretty damned complex(I'm bidding on their transportation contract right now). Getting the same frenchfries sold in places where they can't grow potatoes isn't easy.
While the "sameness" of Mcdonalds food is repulsive to some, it's impressive that they manage to achieve such generic sameness in the markets they've established themselves in.