Having purchased a working M2, I've been using it as my principal keyboard, thinking that it would be a shame to just put it on a shelf until its capacitors dried out too.
However, I've found that occasionally I make typing errors on it that I would not have made on my regular Model M.
One other thing about it, which is a plus if you want to change keys around, but a minus from the viewpoint of how fancy a keyboard it is, is that it is a stepped keyboard rather than a sculptured keyboard. Of course, this is only from the shape of the keycaps, but it still affects typing.
I wonder if they are not actively designing new up and coming keyboards, what are they doing with the money?
Like most companies, their first priority is paying whoever answers the phone and takes orders. If they are getting enough orders that their existing stock of keyboards is getting depleted, they also have to pay whoever is working in their factory to make more. And if they're really making
lots of money, then research and development on new products, so as to make
even more money naturally follows.
I don't know what Unicomp's precise situation is, but their principal sales are to offices, not to old-style keyboard enthusiasts, most of which have been able to find used model M keyboards cheaply, I suspect. Even though this is no longer as possible as it used to be.
Most offices, though, take one listen to the Model M, and recoil in horror from its noise level.
Basically, then, it seems to me that Unicomp's core business consists of a customer base of IBM shops that had a lot of IBM terminals and PS/2 computers, and whenever they replace a keyboard, they want to replace it with the closest thing to what they had before.
Like the Japanese firms that buy Topre keyboards, they may have found that increased typing speed and accuracy are worth it. So high data-entry requirements are also a likely characteristic of the companies that are Unicomp customers.
Sadly, I suspect that many of Unicomp's potential customers have not even heard of them, but perhaps it does advertise in the areas of the trade press that are required to reach them.
