jmke

Despite having a huge customer base, both from end-users and OEMs, Logitech is no slouch when it comes to releasing new and innovative products. They know as well as anyone that being big is no excuse for dragging your heels - in this industry, as in any other, if you don't come up with better products faster than your competitor, chances are that you'll soon find yourself losing ground on all sides. Customers generally have little loyalty if better products are available from other companies at lower prices.

Thus, Logitech has been pretty steady in releasing new, top-of-the-line mice to compete with the likes of Microsoft, Razer, and other companies. While I would expect them to make the most of their revenue from large orders from OEMs (like Dell), they have continued to cater to the performance users, releasing products like the MX1000 and G7 mice, despite their lower sales volumes, as compared with other lower-priced mice. In this way, they have kept their market ownership fairly high across all segments, and having used both of these mice before, I can attest to their quality and usefulness.

However, a recurring trend has plagued most high-end mice, including Logitech's: They are almost all designed for the right-handed user in mind. In an attempt to increase comfort for these users, the mice were often designed sloping to one side, with button layouts to better accommodate the right-handed grip. While these changes usually did make the mouse feel better for right-handed users, they often left... left-handed users out in the cold. (Yes, the pun was intended.) So, lefties often had to fend for themselves, either learning to use the mouse with the right-hand, painstakingly using it with the left, or opting for an ambidextrous mouse that offered less features, instead.

Well, it seems that Logitech has had enough of this left-handed discrimination - they've finally released the MX610 Lefty, a left-handed only mouse that is a mirror copy of the original MX610 that was for righties only, and I say, "It's about time." This is the first left-handed-only mouse I've seen, and certainly the first to offer a huge bevy of features typical of right-hand-only mice - let's see if it delivers the goods.

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