I think the number pad on a laptop is a massive waste and an anti-feature for 99% of users. Most people don't use it enough to justify the space it takes, and especially the ergonomic awkwardness of having the keyboard perpetually off-center.

Here are some other keys that are a massive waste for 99% of users:

* Home

* End

* Backtick/tilde ` ~

* Backslash/pipe \ |

* PrtScn

* Break/Pause

* Any F key that is not F1 or F5

When's the last time most users typed a backslash? A pipe char? A backtick?! (If you say "in a command prompt" you are not talking about the mythical 99% of users)

Depending on the audience, [delete] is a waste of space too - a lot of people just use backspace. Would you abandon it?

Not being useful for everybody doesn't mean it's useful for nobody.

Sure. A number-pad that nearly no-one uses takes up a lot more space than keys that would leave empty space or necessitate a brand-new keyboard layout if they were removed. Very different.

Removing the function keys wouldn't necessitate a brand-new layout, and I suspect the num keys get used more than function keys.

This is 100% a decision in line with much of the core premium Windows audience - corporate employees who use Excel and other programs with numerical data entry on a daily basis.

There has been massive encroachment of MBP and MBAs into the corporate world as BYOD policies have been adopted.

Very smart move.

Yuck. If you are doing this much data entry, you are probably not at a Starbucks and most likely, at a bigCo desk. In that case, a $5 numeric keyboard will be better.

The offcenter keyboard (and worse yet, off-center trackpad) is a much worse compromise.