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

One can argue it’s not Apple being stubborn at all. It’s all the people persistently asking for something iOS does not have, never had, and never plans to add.

iOS and iOS devices have been around for over a decade now. They have always been, from day one, purely touch devices, as designed to be. Just as iOS has no central user file system, does not support Bluetooth FTP file transfer, etc. It was deliberately and consciously designed not to have those features.

It’s not inherently stubbornness when a company simple remains true to its product design concept and principles. Why people even continue to expect or demand this to change is what’s behind me. It’s a touch interface operating system - has been since day one and remains so today 10+ years later. Hundreds of millions of users world wide seem fine with that if persistent sales figures indicate anything.

I have been using iPads as a cheaper laptop replacement since the iPad was introduced 2010.

Unlike many "old school” computer users, I learned how to use the device and the device paradigm that I purchased.

I learned to use my iPads as they were designed to be used.

I learned to be fast and proficient using the software/onscreen keyboard.

I have never needed the use of an external trackpad or mouse when using my iPads.

I learned to use the tools I purchased and to make the best of these modern day electronic tools.

iOS and iDevice are touch ONLY devices.

What's the point to having a truly lightweight and portable mobile tablet device if you have to schlep around bulky heavy keyboard cases or a seperate Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad/mouse with you all of the time wherever you take your iPad?

I am surprised that Apple, in 2015, finally decided to add native stylus support to iPads with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil after 5-8 years!

Everyone remember when Steve Jobs kept stating how adding a stylus to a mobile device meant the device would already be an epic fail before launch?

Yet, iPads now have native stylus support with the Apple Pencil.

Actually, third party stylus makers were already supporting iDevices with stylii of all types, including smart, Bluetooth ones.

It's going to be a much longer wait for Apple to offer REAL wireless Bluetooth support for wireless mice and trackpads, though.

I think we’ll see improvements to the iOS software trackpad functionality, first, before Apple will, if ever, offer support for any conventional wireless pointing devices.

It's the way it is.

If you feel the iPad doesn't meet your needs, sell it and purchase/get a mobile device/tablet that does!

Not everyone likes or can adapt to the iOS/iDevice paradigm.

Find and purchase the mobile device that works best for your needs.

It maybe the iPad isn’t for you!

I mostly type and edit word processing documents and long typed or written notations on my iPad quite frequently.

All without the aid of a mouse or trackpad.

iPads, to date, aren’t really full laptop computer replacements AND, as long as full blown laptop/MacBook computers continue to exist, iPads WILL NEVER BE a full laptop replacement!

As the iPad is, currently, I get plenty of real work done on an iPad.

Period.

The iPad IS NOT the right tool for YOU, either!

Always purchase the right mobile computing device/tools that works best for the way YOU work and do things!

The alternatives ARE out there and available.

An iPad has always met most of my computing needs and is conducive to the way I work and do things.

Good Luck on your search for your preferred mobile device of choice.

Be Well,...Stay Well!

There is no mouse for iPad because iPads are “Touch” screen. Meant for using hands. Mouses are for computers. If you need a mouse, I recommend selling your iPad and getting a computer. The point is, you can’t use a mouse on iPad, and by the looks of it, that will never change. Lol.

Michael,

Simply put, iOS never before claimed the device that could replace your actual computer. But they did, and either did not think it through or thought that the majority of people using computers simply use market apps, watch videos, and play games, as the term Pro to me means a whole lot. There is no Pro to the iPad as it lacks integration into most notebook/tablet markets when it lacks mouse/trackpad functionality. Sales figures when talking phones maybe but iPad sales are failing year over year. The market is demanding more, and Apple is not reacting in time :-(

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-new-ipad-is-too-fragile-expensive-and-impra ctical-for-school-2018-3

Making a discount version to find an outlet that may stomach there short comings:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/27/17167054/new-apple-ipad-announced-cheap-price -students-2018

How about that marketing campaign, replace my Surface Pro with an iPad pro, not without a mouse. Maybe some people at Apple should read "who moved my cheese" and then come to grips that maybe finding that cheese should be the priority. Tip: Cheese is with the Mouse

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.