Are the old Magic Keyboards with numeric keypad being phased out?

[jollino]

Greetings all,
I'm currently using the Magic Keyboard that came with my 2017 iMac, which has a numeric keypad and no Touch ID. Unfortunately it's starting to miss keystrokes, and I believe it's only a matter of time before it dies on me like the one that came before it (the thicker one — one day two columns of keys just stopped working, just like that).

I actually like this keyboard, and I'm wondering if I should actually get an extra one just to be safe later on. My concern stems from the fact that most retailers here in Italy do not have this one in stock. They have the ones with Touch ID (both with and without numeric keypad) and, occasionally, the one without either a numeric keypad and Touch ID. None seem to have any information on expected restocking dates.
Apple's own Store seems to have them all keyboards ready to ship, albeit at full price, but that doesn't give any hints on whether they're about to be discontinued.

Does anyone have any idea whether it's just a temporary distribution hiccup?

Thank you in advance!

 

[phillytim]

I'm sure that Apple would always have some kind of Magic Keyboard w/numberpad available for your Mac; most anyone should work with it.

 

[MacGizmo]

I would guess that Apple is going to focus on the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID moving forward, so I wouldn't be surprised if you continue to have a difficult time finding the old ones in stock.

One thing is certain, nobody but Apple knows, and they aren't going to tell anyone... especially their own retail employees.

 

[jollino]

That makes sense. It's a bit of a bummer for Intel machines because AFAIK Touch ID only works with M1 Macs, so you're essentially paying extra for something that you can't use (unless you carry the keyboard over to a newer computer later on).

 

[MacGizmo]

Touch ID has been working on Intel Macs for years. It works with your 2017 iMac, so you should have no worries there.

 

[Oreb]

Touch ID has been working on Intel Macs for years. It works with your 2017 iMac, so you should have no worries there.

I haven’t tried it myself (I own neither a Magic Keyboard with TouchID nor a 2017 iMac), but Apple themselves state in the technical specifications for the Magic Keyboard that an Apple Silicon CPU is required for TouchID to work.

 

[jollino]

Touch ID has been working on Intel Macs for years. It works with your 2017 iMac, so you should have no worries there.

Are you sure? I'm only asking because Apple's own Apple Store app only lists my M1 MacBook Air as "compatible" with the Touch ID keyboard, whereas the old one says "all your devices", and includes my iPad. I just noticed that searching for "magic keyboard" on the Apple Store website actually auto-fills "...con Touch ID per Mac con chip Apple" ("...with Touch ID for Macs with Apple chips").
It's absolutely true that Touch ID has existed on Intel Macs, but that was on external devices, wasn't it? (I've never really been a fan of Touch ID on desktop to be honest, so I never followed its development; I barely even use it on my M1 MBA.)
From what I could gather, though I didn't dig too deep into the details, the T2 chip isn't "enough" to handle the way external Touch ID works by comparing the fingerprints' hashes; or, rather, these keyboards were designed to only work with M1's Secure Enclave. The rest of the keyboard should work just fine (after all it's Bluetooth...) but in my case, considering I'm planning on replacing this iMac by the end of next year and the new one will come with a new keyboard, it'd be a little pointless to pay €50 more on something I can't use.

 

[MacGizmo]

I stand corrected. The TouchID keyboard will work just fine with Intel Macs as a standard bluetooth keyboard... except for the TouchID key. For that, an Apple Silicon Mac is required.

I'm guessing that Apple is likely to take this path with all their ancillary products sooner rather than later (such as AirPods, etc.)