Business | Technology
Logitech's new mouse promises to work anywhere
Logitech International, the world's biggest maker of computer mice, will sell a mouse that lets users work on glass tables or polished stone kitchen units.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 22:50 August 21, 2009
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
- The Anywhere Mouse MX devices can work on clear glass or other polished surfaces. Logitech is targeting the growing market of portable computer users as wireless access lets people work on the move or in different rooms at home.
New York: Logitech International, the world's biggest maker of computer mice, will sell a mouse that lets users work on glass tables or polished stone kitchen units, surfaces where its devices previously had trouble functioning.
The Anywhere Mouse MX for laptops will sell for $79.99 (Dh293.5), and the larger Performance Mouse MX for $99.99, Chief Executive Officer Gerald Quindlen said in an interview.
The devices use so-called darkfield laser tracking to follow movement on clear glass or other polished surfaces, according to the company.
"Notebook users know the problem," Quindlen said from his home in Atlanta. "Even their wonderful laser mouse doesn't work on a glass surface or their granite countertop in their kitchen, so it appeals to them."
Logitech is targeting the growing market of portable computer users as wireless access lets people work on the move or different rooms at home.
Revenue at Logitech, which competes with Microsoft Corp. to supply computer components, slumped by more than a third in the three months through June, and the company reported its biggest loss since going public in 1997.
Quindlen declined to say by how much the two mice may help increase sales. It may take longer than usual to build the market, because of the weakened state of the global economy and consumer spending, he said. The company has made more than a billion mice since 1982, and the new mice are among its most profitable businesses, Quindlen said.
"In general our mice category has higher margins than other product categories that we sell, and these two products have great margins within the overall portfolio of mice," Quindlen said.
Microsoft's most expensive mouse costs $99.95 and comes with one gigabyte of flash memory. Logitech shares have dropped 37 per cent in a year, more than the 14 per cent drop of Microsoft in the same period.
Logitech, based in Romanel-sur-Morges in Switzerland, spent five years developing the new devices. To solve the problem of smooth surfaces, Logitech applied darkfield microscopy technology that measures movement by bouncing light off defects too small for the naked eye to see, such as microscopic specks of dust or scratches.
"It's for any piece of glass that's been in the real world for more than 10 minutes," said Greg Dizac, one of the engineers who led the development of the product.
In the first quarter of Logitech's fiscal year, consumers bought fewer and cheaper products. Three-quarters of the revenue was from goods costing less than $60.
"I wouldn't say we are confident yet, we're just confident that the worst is behind us," Quindlen said. Last month Logitech restarted the stock buyback programme it had halted in December.
Quindlen said he'll be one of the beneficiaries of the new devices. He has struggled to get his mice to work on the stone surfaces of his home kitchen and glass tables in hotels when he travels in 46 out of 52 weeks.
"I'd have to take a book or something and put it on the glass and use the mouse within that," he said. "Now that's solved."
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