New Wired Keyboard Loses Numeric Keypad

Lonnie Lazar ()

wiredkeyb-lg.jpg

Somewhat lost in the shuffle of Tuesday’s product announcements was news of the new wired keyboard Apple will bundle standard with all new iMacs, a compact design modeled after the aluminum wireless keyboard, which omits the numeric keypad traditionally found on the right side of the device.

The new keyboard requires Mac OS X 10.5.6, and features two onboard USB 2.0 ports.

It will be available as a separate item for $49, with the long-form wired keyboard also remaining available as an optional upgrade.

DON'T MISS
Apple’s Compact Wired Keyboard Has Been Discontinued

8 comments »

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in News |

  • Duality

    Wait… *ALL* new iMacs? And it has no keypad?

    Are they *INSANE*?

    This is like the mouse thing all over again!

    FACE TO PALM RATIO IS HIGH.

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    Even more amusingly, last time I looked both the standalone version of this *and* the keyboard with numeric keypad had the exact same name in the UK store.

    Anyway, way to go, Apple! Perhaps with the next keyboard you could just do away with keys entirely. After all, it’s not like users actually like having a full-size keyboard for a desktop machine, right? No, wait.

    *sigh*

  • http://www.raymondadams.net Raymond Adams

    I bought an older wireless keyboard to work with my laptop, so that I WOULD have a numeric keypad on the side.
    This is about as smart as only offering your monitors with a glossy screen.
    Bad decision Apple.

  • Celery

    I am delighted by this announcement. Such a keyboard is great for people who are concerned about the ergonomic position/splay of one’s mouse hand, left OR right. Not having the keypad is an easy tradeoff.

  • imajoebob

    Stupid, stupid, stupid.

    Classic Apple screw-up that they’ll defend to their last breath. It’s prettier. so it must be better.

    Just as they’ve gained traction as a business-appropriate computer, they screw it up. Just as they’ve displayed a glimmer of hope about understanding spreadsheets with Numbers ’09 – it only took a decade – they sabotage it with this. The universal constant of business is number crunching. No one will buy a computer for “Business” without a number pad. The number pad was one of the big catalysts for business accepting the PC as a tool.

    Anyone older than 40 remembers the days when Gateway’s ads touted the standard 101-key keyboard. No one in their right mind ever bought an 88-key model again. Heck, I remember having to special order one from CDW about 7 years ago to fit in my server cabinet; they didn’t even stock the 88-key model.

    Numeric data entry without a keypad CAN’T BE DONE. I can do more than 100 entries per minute on a numeric keypad. It’s less than 15 with the horizontal keys. I’ll bet the pinhead at Apple who made this decision couldn’t build a spreadsheet to balance their checkbook, and has peons enter contact info into the customer database for him/her.

    This is like replacing the QWERTY keyboard with Dvorak, because the Feng Shui of the key caps is better. Oh. God, please don’t let the fashion designers at Apple hear that.

  • Mojomes

    That is so unbelievably stupid. Why don’t they give people the choice? I want and need a numeric keyboard, but in the future it wont come from Apple. Where does the idea come from, that people don’t need a numeric keyboard?

    I really despise this “we know better” attitude.

    Having said that, proportions, it’s just a company and it’s just a product. No biggie. I go somewhere else.

  • Desmond Foulger

    Maybe just a keypad with a single button so that we can input via morse code?

  • phaedrus76

    Just FYI, in case anyone didn’t bother to do their research before flying off the handle, get a grip. Apple offers the keyboard with numeric keypad as an option when you buy an iMac. And get this, it is no additional charge.

    I personally have have a Mac wireless KB sans numpad, and I love it, although I am not a corporate data entry peon, it is fantastic for doing presentations. Sometimes a presenters mouse just doesn’t cut it. Besides, most data entry clerks need nothing more than an old 486 with IBM clicky keys, right?