This mouse used only two rotating disks, one for horizontal movement and one for vertical movement. With the introduction of the mouseball, navigating with the mouse became much easier. The mouse seemed the best solution to navigate through a graphical interface. The mouseball however is very sensitive to little particles. That's when the mousepad introduced itself.
Mousepads make navigating easier and more accurate.
Later on, smart business people started to exploit it and advertising on a mousepad was introduced. In the US and Europe the concept of advertisement on mousepads is well known, in Asia however the market is still very small. The first mousepads consist of three layers. The top layer was made of textile. A small US-company patented this production method.