Apple's Magic Mouse

They just won the multitouch-device race years ago (iPhone). They kept developing the multitouch technology and brought it to notebooks (Macbook’s multitouch pad). As engineers might know, Apple just got a considerable advantage in multitouch technology.

Microsoft catch it. They noticed that multitouch was the next hip. Before continuing we’ve to notice something, Microsoft doesn’t develop computers, so they partner with other PC makers as HP (their favorite), Acer, or Dell. Three ideas came out from Microsoft:

• Tablet PC: released before iPhone, wasn’t really multitouch, just was extending the PDA concept.
• Microsoft Surface: announced after iPhone, was a good research idea. Implies a different paradigm of use, will see if works. By now, we do know that certainly can’t be focused to be used as standard PC, since is like a table you’ll need to keep your neck down all time to interact with it. Uncomfortable.
• HP Touchsmart: not multitouch either, it might look as the best approach to general use PCs but people gets tired of keeping the arm up for touching the screen (don’t panic, they come with standard mouse and keyboard).

So desktop computers were really missing multitouch capabilities for general use. To be honest, I was waiting Apple to release an multitouch pad with LED screen (very iPhone like) but for desktop computers. Then, Microsoft announced to be researching a multitouch mouse and I realized “hey, this is a good idea for desktops!” (since I really love Macbook’s multitouch pad), but Apple did it again. They had a revolutionary mouse ready to hit the market: the Magic Mouse.

Did this happen in just one night? Nope. Apple were visionary and bought a really interesting company called Fingerworks some years ago (there were other visionary companies as Google buying Youtube, and Microsoft buying… nothing really interesting).

Ok, let’s be fair. Microsoft really do good mouses (I really love my Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000), they have a lot of respect in that field. And their Mouses Development Department wasn’t really taking naps all that time. They launched a foldable mouse (Arc Mouse) and developed a new laser tracking technology (BlueTrack). Decorating the house while Apple was building a skyscraper.

Now, everything that Microsoft builds related to touch technology on mouses will smells like Apple. And, for those who likes to understand trends, since Apple and Microsoft were working in the same idea (the multitouch mouse) we can measure a bit, how far is one from another: Microsoft multitouch prototype mouse vs. Apple’s ready-to-buy Magic Mouse.

- For WinXP users (many of them Vista downgraders) this will be a big jump. To notice, technology journalists/bloggers are probably Vista users (those who aren’t Mac users) and they’re used to the new Vista/Seven visual style. Conclusion: to all those WinXP users, take that smile off, there are hard days coming.

- Does Win7 really require less computing power?  Less than Vista? Of course! But Win7 is “faster” just because Vista is really slow! Some of us think that as a premeditated step, Microsoft brought a really resource consuming OS (Vista) just to prepare they consumers for their next-gen OS (Seven). So, you bought a C2D CPU and 4Gb of RAM, there you go, Win7 runs pretty fast, isn’t? So Ubuntu and WinXP may flies over that! Conclusion: most of Vista users have powerful enough PCs to notice that a well-designed OS runs as fast as should on their machines.

- “Yeah but Microsoft give us consumer friendly prices”… not at all! If you bought the cheapest version of Vista (Home Basic, USD$199) you won’t be able to get Win7 upgrade prices, so you can buy Win7 Home Premium for USD$199. If you’ve Vista Home Premium (USD$259) you can upgrade to Win7 Home Premium for USD$119. Now, clever ones will think “uhm, with that price margin I’d buy a Mac”, or, “now is the time for going Linux”, and probably in China: “What?! We’d have to keep copying Win7 for USD$4″. Conclusion: you probably will be paying some hundreds again…

Closing: Is not nice to keep selling an overvalued OS, Mr.Microsoft! You OWE to your customers, they payed a LOT for a broken product (Vista), so, as a friendly gesture, you should offer cheap upgrades as compensation. I know you offered free upgrades for some people who bought Vista computers after June 26, but is not enough, you’re just encouraging new comers but forgetting old friends… the sad thing is they probably are still going to pay for Win7, just because the atmosphere says “you’re the pretty girl of the party”.