Microsoft officially announces the Arc Touch Mouse, due in December

Microsoft has officially unveiled its latest mouse, the Arc Touch.

Details of the Arc Touch Mouse began surfacing in early July as several European retailers began publishing listings for a "Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse". Company officials registered arctouchmouse.com on Tuesday March 30 this year. Neowin exclusively revealed in August that the device would be announced in September.

“The reasons people need external mice will not change: comfort and precision. The Arc Touch Mouse just demonstrates again how committed Microsoft is to continuing to bring great new mice to consumers,” said Brett Ostrum, general manager for the Hardware Group at Microsoft.

The mouse is the result of a Microsoft Research program dubbed "Mouse 2.0". The project detailed different designs for a prototype multi-touch mouse and one of the prototypes looks similar to the current Microsoft Arc Mouse. Microsoft officials published a research PDF paper in October 2009 which contained pictures of a possible multi touch mouse. Microsoft plans to introduce the mouse as a cheap alternative to costly touch displays for use with Windows 7. It's understood this is a basic implementation of touch and will likely not support multi-touch initially. It will retail at $69.95 and be available sometime in December.