engine - 5:29 pm on Jul 18, 2008 (gmt 0)

Cost is one of the major keys to this, from a consumer point of view. A mouse ciosts a few $$. Gesturing or touching a screen is convenient and intuative, however, it's not practical for the vast majority of consumer applications.

The touch interface was invented way back in 1971, and it is perfect for a whole range of applications. In fact, it's helped generate new applications that would have been impractical for a mouse. Think of point of information kiosks, think of point of sale cash registers at restaurants, etc. It's helped create the touchscreen-based phone. However, it has not replaced the mouse and keyboard in the vast majority of consumer computer interfaces.

I'd like to be proved wrong, but, I think it'll be more than a few years before alternative technology replaces the mouse in the vast majority of general applications for the consumer.