Logitech New Mouse Range Goes Back to the Future

The Mouse: A Well-deserved Success Story, Continued

Logitech has sold more than 500 million mice and several tens of millions of models derived from the B58 shape.

That's just it, what do you think of this trend toward a digital house? With a PC server and wireless transmission throughout the home, isn't there a need for a new interface?

This is a disposable technology, one that is in the course of being deployed and that needs that famous last fraction of an inch. So we are going to offer interfaces that will link all the devices together. We are considering a simple interfacing system in the home, with everything in terms of technologies and content. What do the TV, the Xbox and the Net all have in common? All of them are communications platforms. Thus, the intelligence of the PC will be capable of being distributed throughout the house. We are going to try and work on interfacing this convergence. Our experience with the games console and the cell phone has already given us good experience.

Our acquisition of a Canadian company called Intrigue will enable us to reinforce our presence at trade shows. It developed the Harmony Remote control, which the press has praised unanimously and makes it possible to control electronic apparatus by activity and not by category. We now have all the trump cards we need to enable us to develop a unique interface to run the digital house: the "mouse" of the house is born.

Design and lifestyle are a priority for Logitech. Do you consider this to be one of the keys for making the computer into a lifestyle object?

We always thought that way and as long ago as 1989, we began working on Frog Design. Computing is really behind the times and, despite the deployment, this is still a first use logic, the sort of thing that is only interested in the basics. With the multiplication of uses and democratization, interest is growing in matters of comfort and success. Just as in tennis, there is interest in the hardness of the ball in relation to the surface.

User interfaces are personal items. One day, computers will be in the wall behind a socket. Only the screen, the loudspeakers, and the keyboard-and-mouse set will remain visible. Beyond functionality and comfort, these objects will be part of our daily life, and we want to make them as different as we are. You don't buy a new watch just because it shows the time but because there is an emotional link, a part of ourselves that is invested in the act. Our design orientation will become more and more of a reality.