It's not a choice between leaving things alone and change for change's sake.
Once the molds are worked out, getting new ones made is simple and cheap.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it", as Upton Sinclair famously wrote. Product managers (or rather product-people in general, including designers and so on) don't get bonuses for saying "the product is perfect as it is, we'll just keep paying a full team to fix bugs and do basic maintenance, forever".
Actually, isn't that basically how companies that produce one-off software work? Like game studios, for example. You've got a central pool of "design talent" that doesn't stay on past release, and then you've got "live teams" for each release.
This is so true and really becoming a problem in tech. Another good example is Google Maps. The browser version used to be great. And then they went and “improved” it and in the process actually made it harder to use, in my opinion.
I would rather write "was homeless" into my resume for those years as a UI/UX-Designer then admit i worked on that team.
I think there is a market for a mouse that can be either wired or Bluetooth. You could charge it and use it as a normal mouse if plugged in. Or you could use it in Bluetooth mode if not plugged in. This would save on AA batteries plus it would mean you could still use it on a PC where you have just installed the OS and don't have the Bluetooth setup yet.
Such a mouse could also work as a reasonable USB power brick for when your phone has no juice on the commute home.
Add in a small bit of flash storage and such a mouse would be perfect for all kinds of clever things.
Undoubtedly such a mouse would be niche but it could be the de-facto mouse for IT support people.
I can use it as a Bluetooth mouse, while charging from my USB port, but I can't use it as a USB mouse.
>hands down favourite
I suppose it's hard for companies to recognise when they're at "peak function" and to just stop changing things but it's encouraging to see MS recognise that all of their "innovations" might have actually been making things worse, and just go back to the old design. Hope it's the start of a trend. MS mice used to be my hands down favourite.