The Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse, the newest edition of the Arc line which includes a portable mouse and lightweight keyboard, was all but confirmed this morning when box shots, product images, and a features list—touch scrolling, 2.4GHz USB, and Microsoft’s any-surface tracking technology— were posted on a German online electronics store.
Microsoft’s first Arc Mouse received generally favorable reviews for its portability and unique curved form factor, though was criticized by some for its lack of polish. Hopefully Microsoft learned from the criticisms of the first Arc Mouse as well as from the reviews of its closest competitor: Apple’s Magic Mouse. Though Apple excels at touch interfaces, the Magic Mouse’s thin design was too hard to hold for many, while its touch gestures were lacking in comparison to their laptop trackpads. Will Microsoft’s Arc Touch mouse suffer from the same issues?
Touch is no longer the novelty of our techno-past, but a real part of our daily interactions with computers. Between cell phone and GPS screens, tablet devices, multitouch trackpads, and other interfaces, implementing cursory touch functionality is no longer sufficient. Apple especially has pushed touch control with multitouch-gesture based hardware—which they liberated from their laptops recently with the Bluetooth enabled Magic Trackpad. If Microsoft wants to compete in this arena, they better be prepared to design a product that wows.
