I disagree a bit with this assessment of Apple&#x27;s intentions.  It wasn&#x27;t that they didn&#x27;t want a second mouse button because they didn&#x27;t want to hide functionality because you could always hold down the Control key and click to access those functions, even on a single button mouse.  The issue (and where I think the design is really thoughtful) is that it&#x27;s never <i>required</i> to use that second mouse button (or Control) but that it&#x27;s there for people who are comfortable using it.<p>Apple is and has always been about a tiered learning curve for their devices and I think your point about the mouse is a great example.  If you put 2 buttons on a mouse, it complicates every interface element by two-fold.  Every item that can be clicked can now also be clicked with a 2nd button.  For a brand new user, keeping 1 button basically forces them to look at what&#x27;s on the screen and assess what they&#x27;re doing rather than needlessly right click everywhere searching for a context menu.  People who tend to right click on things (when they understand what a right click does and <i>intentionally</i> perform the action know what they expect to be behind that right click.<p>I feel like iOS is the same way, and intentionally so.  A novice user can get by doing all of the basic commands with swipes, pinches, and taps.  A more advanced user can do rotations, shakes, and multi-touch swipes.  An expert user can access every feature of every application.