Canon might be a little too late to the table with this gadget. Their new Foldable Mouse promises to combine three gadgets together into one; a compact mouse, a calculator, and a numeral pad. Three commonly used gadgets at that, but the problem starts when you actually think about the integration and what we already have provided to us.

Every modern day OS has a speedy built-in calculator included right with the software. And sure, a numeral type-pad would be cool to rock with your laptop, but how many people actually use numbers that often on a laptop anyway? Accountants, we can see this being an awesome gadget for you, but for the average joe, it doesn’t seem like it serves that much of a purpose.

When folded, the Canon LT-100TKM can be used as a 1,000 dpi mouse (wireless capabilities would have been a nice touch.) But open the clam shell device up, and you have yourself a 10-key numeric type pad, which can also be used as a standalone calculator. The idea is great, but the implementation of the device is flawed. Wireless is the way to go these days.

But Canon knows where it sits in the mouse market. Expectations are set pretty low, as Canon plans to sell 15,000 units of this device in a year, so it’s not the new killer gadget and Canon knows it. But for the select audience which would be interested in a foldable multi-purpose mouse such as this, you can bet they’ll scoop it right up. Japan dwellers can grab their own for around $32 in late July.

Press Release via CrunchGear