Microsoft Hardware Blog

You’ve heard us talk quite a bit about our history here at Microsoft Hardware in the past month, but now we’d like to take a moment to reflect on where we are today.

Throughout our 30 year history, we have been specifically focused on creating hardware that lights up the Windows experience—a fact that was true in 1982 and still rings true today. As we celebrate this pivotal milestone, we find ourselves in an era where touch technology is all around us—and staying true to our founding principles, Microsoft Hardware remains committed to delivering products that enhance the PC experience in all its forms.

With this in mind, Microsoft has introduced several peripherals throughout the past few years—our Touch Portfolio of products— that embrace the touch experience within a peripheral form factor.

Microsoft Touch Mouse—The Microsoft Touch Mouse delivers a complete multi-touch experience for users who desire total control over their PC experience. Its 360-degree scrolling makes it an ideal tool for quickly navigating all Windows interfaces using one-, two-, and three-fingered gestures. And, its sleek design and ergonomic shape combines the classic functionality of a traditional mouse with advanced gestures that make everyday tasks more fluid and intuitive.

Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse—With the Explorer Touch Mouse, we took touch strip technology to the next level by delivering a strip with four-way scrolling, allowing users to navigate both horizontally and vertically with the swipe of a finger. The mouse also features three scroll speeds detectable through haptic feedback, speeding up everyday tasks with a modern scrolling experience in familiar form.

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse—Designed with mobility in mind, the Arc Touch Mouse was the first addition to our Touch Portfolio. With a sleek collapsible design, it was our first mouse to feature touch scrolling—where the flick of a finger starts hyper-fast scrolling, and a simple tap brings it to a stop.

For more information on Microsoft Hardware’s Touch Portfolio of products—and to learn how they will integrate with the new Windows 8 operating system—click here.

As many of you are aware, we are commemorating our special 30^th Anniversary milestone with a limited quantity of 30^th Anniversary Arc Touch Mice—and we’ll be giving one away! There’s still a chance for you to win. Just tweet what you love about the 80s and include the hashtag #MSHWturns30. We’ll pick 1 winner from the top 100 tweets that will be eligible to win one of these commemorative hand-painted 30^th Anniversary Arc Touch mice.