Gartner analyst says the mouse will be on the outs within five years

As you may have noticed, we're not ones to put much stock in analysts' predictions, especially when they involve the demise of something as entrenched as the mouse in as little as five years. Still, that's the limb Gartner analyst Steve Prentice has walked out on, sort of. While he first qualifies things a bit by saying that the mouse "works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it's over," he later seems to get considerably more definitive in stating that "the idea of a keyboard with a mouse as a control interface is the paradigm that I am talking about breaking down" (the keyboard, he says, is here to stay). In place of the mouse, Prentice sees things like facial recognition systems, multi-touch, and even devices like OCZ's mind-reading Neural Interface Actuator taking over. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to start practicing thinking really hard so we don't get tripped up during the transition.

( TrustedReviews )