Logitech Sold One Billion Mice, in 23 Years

It's not easy to sell one billion of anything let alone a $50 mouse. Logitech today brags it has shipped billionth mouse after in the market for over 20 years. The first mouse from the Switzerland-based Logitech was the P4 (pictured above), which began mass production in 1985 at the company's birthplace. Logitech reached the 100 millionth mouse mark in 1996, and subsequently, topped 500 millionth 7 years later. The company is now selling at a rate of 376,000 mice per day and 7.8 million every month.

Looking back all these years, we've seen several major revolutions: first upgrading serial to USB; adding a wheel for more control over scrolling; moving completely to optical and recently laser sensor from mechanical ball for increasing pointing accuracy; and last but not least, expanding from a single-function pointing device that detects merely two-dimensional motion to a multi-purpose 3D gesture-based controller. Thanks to Logitech (mostly), mouse now becomes an essential part of the lives for mobile workers, hardcore gamers, and even couch potatoes.

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