[glenra]

PARC didn't invent the mouse.

Yes, they built a mouse and shipped it as part of an integrated product, but it had been invented by others more than a decade earlier. It had even shipped in a product well before they did it. PARC is actually in pretty much the same position there that you're putting Apple - they took an existing idea and made it a bit more commercial than it had been. Englebart's mouse was unreliable and uncommerical; PARC's mouse was more practical to make, more reliable, but way too expensive; Apple's mouse was finally reliable and cheap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_%28computing%29#Early_mic...

[6ren]

Thanks - I thought Engelbart was at PARC, incorrectly. Well, I'm happy for there to be stages of commercialization, just as there are stages of invention (and not always a clear demarcation), people improving what went before is the way.

Interesting that Engelbart patented the mouse. http://www.google.com/patents/US3541541?printsec=abstract#v=...