London, December 5 : Swiss company Logitech has revealed that its factory in Suzhou, western China, has produced its one-billionth computer mouse.

The company has made this revelation at a time when analysts claim that the mouse will not exist for longer.

"It''s rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company," the BBC quoted Logitech''s general manager Rory Dooley as saying.

"Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone," he added.

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice, though believes that "the mouse will no longer be mainstream in three to five years", agreed that the manufacture of the one billionth mouse was a "tremendous achievement".

"It speaks volumes to the success of the mouse that they (Logitech) have produced a billion and good luck,” he said.

He also said that the other technologies that would replace the mouse would involve facial and movement recognition for the mainstream market.

Dooley, however, was believed the new technologies would have a place alongside the computer mouse.

"The fundamental functionality of the mouse has not changed for 40 years and that is one of the keys to its success. We do not envisage unlearning all those years of learning but that doesn''t mean to say there will not be a place for touch interfaces. Touch will augment the things you can do today with the mouse and keyboard interface," he added.

He even put talk of the death of the mouse down to hyperbole.

"The reality is it''s always easy for people to drum up interest in a story by making an extreme statement. And in the story of the ''mouse is dead'' campaign by Bill Gates a few months ago, that was started to drum up interest in Windows 7, the next version of the operating system,” he said.

"The challenge with these new technologies is going to be will you touch a screen that is two feet away from you a thousand times a day? Is touch accurate enough to let you get into the cell of a spreadsheet?

"Those are just some simple questions we believe will not necessarily be answered by the touch interface of tomorrow," he added.

Logitech''s one-billionth mouse rolled off the production line in the middle of November. The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40.
(ANI)