as a pointing/selection device, touchpad is a degenerate version of mouse, and its ubiquity is primarily because it excels at the constraints imposed by the lap

as a pointing/selection device, touchpad is a degenerate version of mouse, and its ubiquity is primarily because it excels at the constraints imposed by the laptops -- form-factor and portability in a unibody chassis; case in point - mouse is the first choice in cad/cam/eda/games; and even in the general market, the share of mouse selection dwarfs that of external touchpads; not sure of others, but i rarely use touchpad on the laptop, let alone get an external touchpad. most laptop manufacturers likely realize this, so they spend the bare minimum on the laptop touchpad just to keep it from being a real turd; premium laptops might fare better, but then for 75usd mouse even a mediocre laptop touchpad ceases to be an issue; most non-tech users are unlikely to know this, and rarely ever need to be a power-user, hence the mindset hypothesis ;)