In simplest terms, the KP-900 lacks a numeric keypad because in-wall keypads generally don't have them.

As for why, that comes from what our dealers told us during development: TV is the least likely activity you'd want to control by walking up to a keypad. The numeric keypad is used regularly by few other activities (and in fact, many TV watchers in the digital age use the Guide instead of typing in channel numbers anyway). Keypads are most often used to control whole-house audio, with occasional uses for other activities.

We wanted the KP-900 to be attractive and simple. Twelve more buttons for a numeric keypad would have made it look far more complex, all for the sake of one activity that isn't likely to be controlled from the wall anyway. Between the Guide and favorite channel macros, the reasons for the numeric buttons are greatly reduced. (In fact, I use an MX-3000 in the same theater with my KP-900, and I used the touchscreen for over a year before I discovered that I had failed to program a jump to my numeric keypad page for DirecTV.)

Yes, some people still want to type in the digits. Whether that's true at the wall is up in the air. But we wanted the KP-900 to meet the broadest possible set of needs with the simplest, most elegant design. Through close interaction with our dealers, this is the feature set that came to the top. It won't be all things to all people, but reaction so far indicates that it's going to meet the broad spectrum of needs for which it was designed.

Best regards,
Dale

PS: KP-900 is now shipping, and the KP-900 Editor is now available for download at URC Control Room.