Why can't Apple make a good mouse?

The company that makes the best trackpads in the world hasn’t made a passable mouse in over 20 years.

- JASON CROSS

The original Macintosh wasn’t the first consumer computer to use a mouse, but it was likely the first popular computer to include a mouse in every box, as it was designed to be operated primarily with one. The Apple Mouse that came with the 1984 Macintosh was the first to truly popularize the concept of mouse-driven computers.

The interfaces of the mainstream computers we use today are still dominated by the pointer-and-clicking paradigms that began back then. Why then, has Apple—a company famous for its attention to usability design—made nothing but awful mice for over 20 years?

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

The original Macintosh came with the original Apple Mouse. It was boxy with chamfered edges that sort of looked like the Macintosh, and had a single huge button—the days of multi-button mice were still years away. It wasn’t a great mouse by today’s standards, but all mice back then were bad. They used ball mechanisms that got caught full of desk gunk and didn’t fit your hand well. The O.G. Macintosh mouse wasn’t great, but it was at least as great as any other mouse.

For 1984, the O.G. Apple Mouse wasn’t half bad.

THE ADB MOUSE

The first ADB mouse was an ergonomic improvement, while sticking to the blocky lines of the computers of the day.