With its shiny new Magic Trackpad, Apple is saying more than you might think.
On the face of it, the £59 device is a rather innocuous accessory - an enlarged trackpad from a MacBook Pro, but with the same sculpted aluminium styling as Apple's wireless keyboards.
"Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one on any Mac computer," burbles Apple on the Magic Trackpad product page, but what Apple's really saying is this: The mouse is dead. Multitouch is the future.
Since multitouch gestures found their way into Mac laptops, Apple's path has been clear. Apple may not have invented the mouse, but it certainly popularised it, and now it believes it's time to bin it.
iOS has taught Apple that the general public responds extremely well to gesture-based computing, and while Apple trackpads still force a level of abstraction that a touchscreen device does not (controlling something by touching in one place while seeing it elsewhere, rather than direct interaction with content), they nonetheless enable users access to intuitive multitouch gestures that are becoming increasingly commonplace.
It's unlikely that we'll suddenly see iOS apps appearing on an iMac anytime soon, or a fully touch-based Mac (hello, RSI!); but what we will see is Apple increasingly working multitouch lessons learned on iOS into Mac OS X, and consumers happily moving between Mac OS X and iOS without a second thought.
And although Magic Trackpad is a standalone accessory today, don't be surprised if it's suddenly bundled with new desktop Macs in 2011, consigning the suddenly limited-in-scope Magic Mouse and other Apple mice to history.
Point-and-click's time is drawing to a close - Apple's moving towards multitouch alone.
Your comments (12) Click to add a new comment
onerichie
July 28th 2010
12. mombasa1969: "Who cares what Apple thinks"
Back in May, Apple's value increased to the point where they are now bigger than Microsoft. They practically own the portable media market, have a huge share in the cell phone market, and it looks like the iPad is going to do for ebooks what the iPod did for MP3s, changing the way we read books and newspapers. Sales of their laptop and desktop computers are rising, and now Valve has brought games to the platform for real, the last hurdle to making their computers truly popular has been overcome.
In industry terms, people do and should care what they think. They may be arrogant and command a (frankly bizarre) cult following, but they are a serious force to be reckoned with.
Remember in 1998 when they stopped putting floppy drives into their machines? Shortly after that, the floppy disk declined rapidly. I don't think Apple caused it as some ultra fanboys would like to claim, but I think they felt it was coming and prepared for it. If Apple switch to touch devices instead of mice completely (which is probably a long way off yet) then I don't think it will kill the mouse, but Apple will have switched for a reason and we may well see the mouse decline rapidly thereafter.
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sarahd
July 28th 2010
11. plus check out the Wacom Bamboo, Brando, and Fingerworks input devices - it's prob where Apple nicked the idea from anyway
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sarahd
July 28th 2010
10. Pads are no where near as accurate as mice, shame they didn't think to include a pen with this, and a few buttons. I've had a Logitech Mouseman (4 button cordless mouse) since it came out (which must be at least 8 years ago) and it still works perfectly, and frankly using any mouse with less than 4 buttons feels somehow primitive.
I also use a Korg Nanopad (x-y pad and 12 programable buttons) for music and desktop. Given, this has a stylish design, but i'd struggle with such a lack of functionality.
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duskrider
July 28th 2010
9. Just listen to some of you guys... as if the mouse is going to just magically disappear overnight. NOT. If you want to use a mouse, buy a mouse. How scandalous!
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jahooba
July 27th 2010
8. One giant step back in precision and accuracy, all because of Job's hatred for buttons (granted, buttons always seem to break first).
Looks like Valve chose the wrong time to start putting games on the Mac.
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bunwellian
July 27th 2010
7. Fantastic, this will save me furtively using 2 fingers to no avail on my current mouse. Anyone who has got used to using a touchpad on a Mac, iPhone or iPad will appreciate this.
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mombasa1969
July 27th 2010
6. Who cares what Apple thinks
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sparkey65
July 27th 2010
5. Although it is not going to replace the mouse for sometime to come it is likely that in the future multitouch will feature predominantly on desktop computers. Giving the option now trains their users to use multitouch ahead of time. As was said at the announcement of the iPad there were 85 millions users already able to use it. How many will be ready when a multitouch desktop hits the market?
With regard to throbie - fair comment however until games authors start writing for multitouch we can't make a comparison.
With regard to smokemonster and jack7. Use an iMac to run current games titles without a problem. Not going to get into the mac vs pc debate as people need to use both before making a decision. Too many comments are made on a variety of forums by people (including the media) who haven't done this.
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jack7
July 27th 2010
4. the inquirer has it about right
"Many of the rumours dreamt up by over-eager fanbois were incorrect, however Apple did announce that its Imac range will feature Intel's Core i3 processors. There is also a quad-core Core i5 model for those not happy about spending a grand on a desktop machine that has a chip intended for bargain basement tin boxes"
They've got it just about spot on!
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1724959/apple-releases-mac-pro-imac-hardware-refresh
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jack7
July 27th 2010
3. Most games wouldn't run on the crappy hardware put in macs - even though they are many times more expensive than their spec suggests they should be.
Minessweeper (from 1980 or whenever msft first made it) might just about manage, but would probably be a bit sluggish.
Way to go rip off apple..
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smokemonster
July 27th 2010
2. Are games allowed on the Mac? Surely there's a risk that a game might have slightly naughty content or involve shooting or fighting. His Lord jobness would never allow it.
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throble
July 27th 2010
1. Well not for gamers it isn't. Only recently there was a piece of news that Microsoft dropped PC vs Xbox multiplayer, because mouse + keyboard controls are superior in speed and accuracy in comparison with console controls.
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