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Michael considered fate at 11:50   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Certainly a sign of the times.. leave it to Apple to be able to generate so much hype (technorati search) about a simple little scroll mouse. It's the number 4 search term on technorati right now, even though the news hit Slashdot 10:01am yesterday, it was the top link on blogpulse for yesterday, and it's numero uno at daypop's top 40. Well, I guess they did call it the Mighty Mouse.

Anyhoo, you gotta admit the word-of-mouth / consumer buzz is all over Apple right now. Whatever they did. However they did it - I don't care if you attribute it to the iPod, or their nice designs, or Steve Jobs' new haircut - they are doing something right.

The last time Apple created this much electricity in the ether was around June 6th when they announced their two year migration scheme from IBM PowerPC processors to Intel x86 processors - admittedly a ginormous press release from Apple. Other than that nothing in the last six months has come close to generating so much buzz.



However, what we are talking about today is a simple goddamned mouse. This isn't rocket science. This isn't a life-altering corporate shift.....

..or is it. This might indeed be more signs of the times - not the buzz around this supposedly mighty mouse, but the simple fact that Apple is (in some little way) admitting defeat over the one-button/multi-button mouse debate.

The question now is next year, when the new Intel Macs come out, will they be shipping with more than one mouse button or not? While it might seem like I'm being overly fussy about what is essentially a very small detail, it speaks to a larger question. Is the Apple experience going to change and, if so, is it going to change for the better? Apple users are a zealous group and, while they are obnoxiously loyal, they can be damn finicky. So, what many Mac users probably really want to know is:

When I try and buy my next Macintosh, am I going to get a Red Delicious instead?