On May 2, 1983, Microsoft released its first PC mouse product, with the rather dull but straightforward title Microsoft Mouse. Today, Microsoft made a small but welcome tip of the hat to that 30 year anniversary on its official Twitter page.
The post shows a picture of the 30-year-old Microsoft Mouse, along with its huge packaging, alongside one of the company"s most recent, and tiny, Wedge Mouse units. It shows how far PC mice have come in 30 years and how Microsoft, despite the launch of the touchscreen-centric Windows 8, continues to develop new mice products.
The original Microsoft Mouse actually came in two versions, according to a recent article on Topdesign Mag. One was made for IBM PC, like the one shown in Microsoft"s picture, that came with a plug-in board. The other version worked on any PC that used Microsoft"s own MS-DOS operating system. The first Microsoft Mouse also came with some free programs including a free population simulator game called The Game of Life that was also made as a tutorial for accessing the command line.
30 years later, the entire PC mouse industry has evolved to ditching the "ball" under the device in favor of laser and optical sensors, and using either USB or wireless connections. Microsoft mice products have evolved to new designs such as the Wedge Mouse and the Arc Touch Mouse and with tens of millions of people still using the keyboard-mouse combination for their desktop operating system, the PC mouse doesn"t look like it will be going away anytime soon.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft