I've been using computers long before mice were even an interesting option. And I've had an Android tablet with a keyboard dock for almost a year.

Using a mouse is a learned behaviour. I still remember people struggling to get to terms with the wrist and finger motions required to use it efficiently. Even now it's not hard to find people who don't know they can even change their mouse's sensitivity. Scrollwheels came about because using a mouse to scroll a window was always slightly awkward.

A touch-screen, OTOH, is much quicker to grasp. Instead of moving a desk rodent or swiping a trackpad to move a virtual pointer, you reach out and tap right on the screen.

Very recently I bought a (not quite current) laptop with a touchscreen. Touching things on the screen is often so much faster than moving a mouse pointer, yet a mouse pointer is still there and still needed for accurate. I like having both but good UI design that can cater for both is still developing. Android does touch well but a mouse pointer is a "virtual touch pointer". Desktop UIs are the other way around.

Microsoft is trying to combine them effectively for the first time in Windows 8. Typically, it's awkward and counter-intuitive and big compromises have been made. But it's Microsoft: They'll either get it good enough in Windows 9 and the industry will align themselves to that, or someone else will beat them to it first and they'll be trailing again.

Wade.