Technology continues to evolved one such device is the beloved tailed gadget the mouse. In 1964 Douglas Engelbart made the first mouse that looked liked the image seen below. It had roller to input up and down commands.
The Ball type mouse was only invented in 1972 by Bill English which allowed the mouse to move in any flat direction. The problem was cleaning the dirty balls the often jammed the mouse controls. The image below shows how a typical ball mouse works. Where the mouse movements causes the X-axis and Y-axis to represent the balls movement which is refracted by the LED which the sensors can pick up in order input mouse movements.
Optic mouses would be developed on 1980 but it would only be in 1998 wherein Optic mouses would gain popularity since microcontroller technology would made the Optic mouse cost-efficient. The Optic mouse main difference is the usage of LED to capture movement, prisms to redirect the light to a camera, and a camera to translate the light movements into codes. The image below shows the difference between the two mouse.
Most mouse production and manufacturing of mouse has been outsourced or produced in Asia such as Acer for Taiwan, Amkette for Bangalore, Sony for Japan and other Chinese Company for China. The competition in the mouse industry is though because there is a demand for high quality and cheap mouse at the same time improvement of the mouse industry is fast-paced. Wherein aesthetics, ergonamics, mouse sensitivity or DPI needs to be accounted for to sell a mouse. Sad to say even Razer is made in China. I was able to find a forum link a person selling a mouse made in Germany but it costs around $64. And basically China imports mouse goods such as computer components and plastic from many countries. China imported $45.8 Billion of Electronic equipment from Japan, following $24.8 Billion from South Korea, $14.3 Billion from USA and $10.5 billion from Germany. China basically imports a lot of things from other country but at the same time it uses these technology to produce end products. The products are basically produced in China which are then transported to different companies such as Apple, Ngenius, Logitech and Razer.
In terms of the impact of computer mouse to the economy the effect is negligible since the truth is a mouse is just a peripheral object compared to say computers and tablets. The truth is no one buys a mouse without buying a computer. Most if not all companies produce other gadgets along with the mouse. If a company were to sell only a mouse their technology would lag behind since new features and capabilities continually being added. There is no perfect mouse. The mouse is just a small part of the computer industry but it''s peripheral value is actually the lesson.
China may do a lot of research but in truth it is focused on its manufacturing, meaning it does not seek innovation but finished products which can be in turned sold in masses. China goods were/are seen as inferior goods. Producing cheap mouse is easy to do but then China starts producing state of the art mouses then they move on to Tablets such as Huawei brands. China is slowly becoming a technological powerhouse. It shows that China may be producing peripheral goods but in reality their import and export products beg to differ.
China is one of the most capitalistic country in the world because of the way they produce, manufacture than reinvest their capital. The mouse is actually a metaphor on how technology continues to develop at the same time they are finished products that may seem cheap at first glance but sooner or later the value rises up. Mouse are not really products that we need but make the way we use the computer easier. Capital states would emerge where that a peripheral state could do so well that reinvesting in importation and exportation can raise the economy.
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