With the software we use the keys on the numeric keypad perform different functions than the number keys at the top. A keyboard without the number pad is more than just inconvenient for us, it's useless. The keys on the number pad perform critical functions not duplicated elsewhere on the keyboard.
Until now we've dealt with it by stringing a USB cable over top of the mixing console, but a change in workflow has made a wired keyboard a real problem (the keyboard and mouse now need to move back and forth from sitting on the console to a side desk several times each day). Apple's refusal to offer a full-function wireless keyboard just became an unexpected, unwelcome and hard to accept show-stopper.
Personal and situational bias aside, I'd bet a week's pay that if buyers were asked whether it's worth losing the numeric keypad to get a smaller footprint, the vote would be 25% yes, 25% no, and 50% don't care.
Please Apple, the cost of offering a full wireless keyboard can't possibly be enough to justify continuing to impose a surprisingly high level of inconvenience for your pro users.
