I need to use a mouse with my ipad pro. What gives?

Yet according to various analyses of sales figures reported in February of this year, the iPad remains the best selling tablet on the market (e.g. Detachable Tablets Return to Growth During the Holiday Season as Slate Tablet Decline Continues, According to IDC), outselling both Samsung and Amazon combined. So clearly the lack of a mouse is not missed by a great many users. Yes tablet sales, overall, are declining, but Apple’s iPad still dominates the market.

There are lots lots of things about any tablet that don’t make them a laptop/desktop replacement to my mind. Not having a mouse though is actually not one of them for me as I find the touch interface just fine for a tablet. I still need a computer for true pre-emptive multitasking, multiple large screen display support, RAM for very large files (my computers all have 16 to as much as 128GB RAM), full featured support for numerous apps (with or without a mouse, I could not write papers - no tablet word processing app offers the full functioned formatting and page layout features of their desktop older brothers), etc.

I’ve been using iPads to write and edit text documents for years. All without the aid (crutch?) of using a mouse or trackpad!

Let’s be honest about the Surface Pro Products.

Microsoft Surface devices are, basically, smaller form factor mobile Windows laptops.

On the Surface/SurfacePro devices, Windows looks to be pretty unweidly to use and navigate by touch alone and so do all of the regular apps for Windows.

Windows and all of the available applications that run on Surface devices are NOT optimised, AT ALL, for touch.

That is the REAL reason Microsoft allows 5 different input devices (keyboard, which looks a LOT like an Apple keyboard , BTW, mouse, trackpad, pen AND Surface Dial) because all the UI elements in both Windows and Windows applications are too small to navigate with your fingers!

Microsoft and Windows forces you to use another input device, mostly, instead of your fingers!

Kinda defeats the idea of having a “touch” screen interface if you STILL need the use of a, seemingly, integral pen, mouse or trackpad.

IPads and iOS are designed from the ground up, to be, primarily, touch ONLY devices.

Microsoft Surface products are not true touch screen computing devices.

They are a regular full blown laptop computers with touch screen capabilities added to them.

Whole different animal!

Other than stylus support, I would not hold my breath or hold out hope for Apple to add native wireless mouse or trackpad support to iPad any time soon.

It took Apple nearly 20 years to offer multi-button mice with Apple Macs.

We are only year 8 into iPads.

So, you will have, at least, another 12 year wait for this to, possibly, happen and by that time, new computing input device technologies will surely be with us, by then, with mice and trackpads, possibly, being obsoleted by that time.

Actually, Apple's sales figures for the first quarter of this year are the highest they have ever been for any first quarter to date.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/01/apple-earnings-q1-2018.html

https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/apple-financial-results-3581769/

And specifically iPad sales went up from last year's first quarter. It's also of note, that Apple's iPad sales figures were the highest overall in 2014. And declined from there. Coming up at 4 year mark its easy to assume that many of those that bought iPads in 2014 are just now coming back to renew their devices. 4 years is about the expected turn around for tablet devices. So the decline in sales in the last 4 years matches up with how mobile devices are bought and how long they are kept. I suspect iPad sales will increase this year because of that. It's all about cycles.

And yes most other tablets that actually support mice aren't actually flying off the shelves. Microsoft has had a really tough time pushing their Surface tablets which incidentally do support mice and many times are much much more expensive than iPads. Also Microsoft seem to be moving towards the mouseless experience on tablets with their new Windows 10 S Mode OS for tablets. While its still supported sure, the focus is on touch screen interface, rather than mouse interface.

Apple still dominates tablet sales. Tablet Wars: After Apple iPad, Amazon Is New No. 2 | Investopedia

and the recently released entry level iPad at $299 is the one to be keeping an eye out for. We'll see how well it does at the end of the second quarter of 2018.

Also, the author of that article really has a chip on his shoulder for Apple. Yes tablets break, but I don't see Android or Windows tablets being offered at schools with rugged cases either. i.e The protection aspect has always been up to the customer. Only Amazon and if you want, Leapfrog have ever offered tablets with included rugged cases for children. The lack of storage for the Pencil is a valid concern. But seeing as its not an actual part of the iPad, unlike integrated stylii for other tablets, its hard to really give them too much grief for not adding a place to put it on the iPad itself.

Maybe offering a magnetic case for the pencil that attaches to the back of the iPad may be a good idea.

It's time for mouse support. There are requirements some people have who use it for work. TONE is frustration felt by many. Maybe not by those who only watch Netflix, but there real world requirements.

Word editing and other business requirements are not the same thing. Say you need to use the iPad to log into a regular computer. One example of thousands. Just because you don't need it doesn't mean the need isn't real.

Then use the Apple feedback page and convince them you’re opinion is the right one. Thus far at least, they have clearly disagreed with all those who say they’ve posted feedback asking for mouse support.

I have owned iPads since the first Air model, and currently own 3 iPads (Air 2, 12.9” first gen iPad Pro and current 10.5” iPad Pro) and have never once felt any need, nor even any desire for a mouse. So you will not convince me one is needed. You are free to use feedback to try to convince Apple of your wishes.

mojowozi-man wrote:

Word editing and other business requirements are not the same thing. Say you need to use the iPad to log into a regular computer. One example of thousands. Just because you don't need it doesn't mean the need isn't real.

Apple has been making iPads for 8 years and Apple STILL does not believe a mouse or trackpad is necessary to use an iPad and now with Apple's creation of the Apple Pencil ( stylus ), Apple believes that the Apple Pencil ( or any stylus, for that matter ) is a good stand-in for mice/trackpads.

Nobody is saying the requirements aren't real. Nobody is saying there aren't people out there who need mice.

But has so far been said, and clearly missed, is that's the iPad has not ever had a mouse, and Apple has been adamant about that during the 8 years they have been making iPads.

If your need for a mouse is so great, then use a device that already supports a mouse, there's tons or devices even Apple devices that support mice. Why is this so difficult?

Why does it need to be an iPad? Why does Apple need to absolutely and without question completely break away from their entire design philosophy on the iPad to add mouse support to a device that has not had one for 8 years?

Why are your specific needs so important that Apple cannot continue to exist without catering to them? Is it impossible for Apple to choose to not provide a mouse on a device they sell, and people understand this and buy one that does support a mouse for the things they need to do with a mouse?

BORg529 wrote:

I apparently mistsken, that keyboard had some kind of touch mouse, like regular laptop computer.😊

The smart connector keyboard is just a keyboard. It does not add nor include any support for a mouse since iOS itself does not include any support for a mouse.

"They have always been, from day one, purely touch devices"...which is why they have had an interface for an external keyboard from Day One? Because typing on a featureless piece of glass eliminates the ability of touch typing, and is therefore inherently slower and less productive? And therefore, won't sell?

Same idea with a mouse versus my finger. There's a time and place for using each. I've used desktops (which Apple still supplies with a mouse), Android tablets (mouse and keyboard, no prob) and iPads, both Pro and Mini (using my fingers to locate and move text.)

It's just easier and, especially, faster to locate and move text using a mouse. It's far more precise than a finger, both to land and to use to highlight a block of text. I can't see through my finger, so I either must wait for the circle to magnify what/where I'm 'touching', find the cursor in that circle, then adjust my finger, or I must make the font large enough that I can hit the right location without waiting for the OS to catch up. Of course, this costs content space, as this reduces the amount of on-screen text by a factor of three or so.

There are other failings of the no-mouse idea. I can think of two more just now. But the idea that a half-inch wide hunk of oily meat, pressed to a piece of featureless glass is a substitute for the precisely designed cursor a mouse generates for the sole purpose of locating a single point on a screen is ludicrous.

Well said, ( Kzoom)!!!😠

FYI: TeamViewer will allow for a mouse, SwiftPoint, to work with the iPad. Citrix has one to, but DON'T BOTHER WITH CITRIX---OR IT'S MOUSE. I bought both. Citrix and it's outsourced idiot support people can't help with some serious problems.

TeamViewer on the other hand, is great and so is SwiftPoint. So---YES, you can use a mouse with an iPad!!

Swiftpoint GT mouse with TeamViewer or other applications. YES, you can use a mouse!! Don't go with Citrix mouse....they have horrible support (NO SUPPORT WHEN THE MOUSE WON'T WORK). TeamViewer....Great.

GrinNBarrett wrote:

Spoken like a person stuck on a one way trip to nowhere with no idea of a world outside their own bubble.

No, spoken like someone who is good at accepting reality. iPads do not support mice. Therefore, if you require a mouse to do what you need to do, the iPad is not, at this point in time, the correct device for your needs. I'm not sure how you can argue with that.

I'm not judging your needs or desire for things to be different. You're entitled to your opinion and I trust that you know what you need. But, that doesn't change how the iPad currently works.

YES---you can use a mouse. You just have to step outside the bubble.

Swiftpoint GT Mouse.

Imagine that! Someone recognized that there is a world of need out there and created a product to fit the need. Furthermore, worldwide companies, like TEAMVIEWER, spent their own capital in recognition of the need, and created applications to fill the VOID that bubble people can't see.

GrinNBarrett wrote:

YES---you can use a mouse. You just have to step outside the bubble.

Swiftpoint GT Mouse.

Imagine that! Someone recognized that there is a world of need out there and created a product to fit the need. Furthermore, worldwide companies, like TEAMVIEWER, spent their own capital in recognition of the need, and created applications to fill the VOID that bubble people can see.

A limited number of apps will support a mouse for use with screen sharing. That didn't seem to be what Kzoom wanted, though. It sounds as if they want a mouse for more general use. And, that's not possible at this time.

I'm not at all clear why you feel the need to be rude to me.