It's 30 years to the day since the first computer with a mouse came on the market, when Xerox launched the Star 8010 workstation on 27 April 1981.

Mouse technology had been around for some time, and its predecessor, the trackball, was created in the early 1950s, thanks to Canadian military research. But the mouse in its modern form was developed at Xerox's legendary PARC research centre.

The mouse was part of a prototype system called the Xerox Aero, which had most of the hardware today's PCs are designed around, including a graphical user interface, Ethernet and parallel ports (now supplanted by USB) and a printer connection - as well as the mouse.

The first devices rolled on two wheels, but Bill English developed the omni-directional ball mouse that became standard. The first model had three buttons, arranged vertically down the centre, and used light to register the movement of the wheel.

The Xerox Star 8010 workstation was not a success - priced at around $75,000 and sold by a company that thought of itself as a photocopier manufacturer it soon sank without a trace. But the mouse became incredibly popular, thanks to its adoption by Apple.

Steve Jobs gave Xerox some Apple stock in return for a two-day tour of the PARC facilities, despite strong objections from some of its staff. Apple's subsequent development of the GUI seen on the Alto is well known, but Jobs was also impressed with the concept of a mouse, particularly in light of moving from text-based to graphical computing.

In his recent autobiography, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen recounts a passionate lecture from Jobs on mouse design, after he questioned Apple's adherence to the single button format. Allen pointed out that two buttons would be more useful, but Jobs argued that simplicity was more important.

"You know, Paul, this is all about simplicity verses complexity. And nobody needs more than one button on a mouse," Allen recalls Jobs saying. Apple adopted multi-buttoned mouse devices in 2005.

The traditional ball mouse has now been replaced with laser models capable of working with greater accuracy on a wide range of surfaces. In the 1990s the addition of movement sensors allowed for 3D control, although this hasn't caught on outside the gaming market.

The mouse looks likely to be part of computing's history in the near term, but is unlikely to see another 30 years in common use. The increasing spread of touch screens in the laptop and tablet markets, and motion sensors like Microsoft's Kinect, will probably doom the device in the long term.

Nevertheless, the mouse will leave a lasting mark on its generation. Physiotherapists have long warned that twisting the forearm to use a mouse is a leading cause of muscle and nerve damage, and many of today's coumputer users will feel the effects of the mouse for some time to come.

Alcatel Lucent is considering selling its telecoms business for $1.5bn to $2bn, and HP, Microsoft and Ericsson are being touted as potential buyers, according to reports.

The enterprise telecoms division of Alcatel sells a combination of hardware and software used in offices and call centres. Despite being profitable, the division accounts for around 10 per cent of overall revenue, according to the The Wall Street Journal.

HP looks to be the front-runner. The firm has a strategic partnership with Alcatel-Lucent and the purchase would provide it with voice technology. Profit from a sale is likely to be reinvested in its cloud computing and telecoms business.

The speculation comes as Alcatel is looking to rebuild market share after a largely unsuccessful merger with Lucent in 2006. The firm has the fourth biggest telecoms market share behind Avaya, Cisco and Siemens.

Alcatel-Lucent posted revenues of €16bn in 2010 and shares have risen sharply in the first quarter of 2011 to €4.15.

V3.co.uk contacted Alcatel-Lucent, but the firm declined to comment on any sale.

Analysts at IHS iSuppli have warned that the earthquake and subsequent power problems in Japan could affect electronics supply chains for some time to come, especially in the telecoms and consumer electronics sectors.

The rolling blackouts and shut downs of several key nuclear power plants across Japan which followed the magnitude 9.0 earthquake near Sendai earlier this month have caused the closure of key component facilities across Japan, many of which have yet to restart production.

These included over 20 semiconductor plants as well as display, battery and silicon wafer factories, which could have a knock on effect in the production of devices such as the iPad 2. Japan accounts for around a quarter of global silicon production, for example.

In the most likely scenario the disaster is unlikely to derail the global recovery, but some industries are likely to experience significant pain as continuing power capacity problems make it hard for these factories to get back on track.

IHS iSuppli even warned that supply may fail again during the high-demand summer season, causing more problems for electronics components manufacturers.

The market watcher said that the earthquake is likely to have cost the Japanese economy more than ¥20 trillion, which amounts to about four per cent of the country's GDP, although it predicted a strong bounce back once electrical generators come back online and factories reopen.