When Apple releases a new “magic” product (or any product) there are always three sides throwing comments at it: the “religious” crowd, the “haters” crowd and the fairly reasonable (but quiet) crowd. Figuring out how big the various factions are can be quite daunting as polarized groups tend to be so much noisier. Anyway, the conversation (or arguments) has been raging on whether or not the Magic Trackpad is a “Mouse Killer” (start laughing now).
On one hand, the Magic Trackpack is very sleek and offers a “Macbook Trackpad experience” that wasn’t available before on desktop Macs and PCs (yes, it works on Windows too). Zooming, scrolling and panning is a breeze (if supported by the software), and it has multi-touch gestures that a mouse can only dream about, if computer mice could actually dream. On the other hand, the good old mouse reacts quickly, is more accurate and doing a right-click or a drag&drop is easier and faster. So… is this the beginning of the end for the mouse?
Not at all. In fact, thinking about this in terms of a zero-sum game where the mouse has to lose for the Magic Pad to win is narrow thinking at best. Secondly, in order to win such a game, the Magic Pad has to beat the mouse on every single front, which is clearly not the case. Never mind that millions of trackpad-enabled Macbook users also buy a mouse. Most likely, the Magic Pad will co-exist with the mouse like hundreds of pointing devices before it, and the mouse will still be the king of the hill – for a foreseeable future. Apple probably agrees: they did not pitch the Magic Pad against computer mice.
While throwing simple ideas like “the mouse is dead”can be laughed at, itis a great link-baitthat could turn intoa good traffic-generator. Magic Pad lovers will link to you. Magic Pad haters will link to you. Both camps will go back toyour page to fight each other, time and time again. In short, it’s good for business.
Filed in . Read more about Apple Inc, Magic Trackpad, Mouse and Trackpad.