“We reported previously on the possibility of Apple making its iWork suite, and possibly its other premium content creation apps, available for free alongside iOS 7 and the launch of new iWork for iCloud web apps,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac.
“It would make a lot of sense given it’s hard to imagine Apple allowing users to create documents for free on iCloud but not seamlessly transfer from iOS to Mac without having to throw down $30 for the three iOS apps,” Kahn reports. “Today we get a little hint from the latest iOS 7 beta that Apple might actually be considering making the apps free this fall.”
Kahn reports, “Curiously, on iOS 7 beta 3, the recommended free apps screen includes Apple’s iWork suite in addition to other paid apps such as Garageband, iMovie, and iPhoto. In the past, Apple has only included free apps in the pop up such as iBooks, iTunes U, and Podcasts. This could signal Apple has plans to offer its premium apps for free in the future.”
Read more, and see the screenshot, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever accelerates weaning people off Microsoft Office and onto iWork is what Apple should be doing. They don’t need the money for the apps more than they need to grow the user base.
As an aside, it might also help Apple’s iAd to have an inconspicuous placement in the free Pages, Numbers, and Keynote iOS apps with an option for users to remove the ads for an inexpensive, one-time purchase. Something like that might fit with Apple’s evolving iAd foci. (Of course, if you already own the apps, you would get free upgrades and no ads).
Related articles:
Computerworld first look: Apple’s iWork for iCloud beta is super-speedy – July 5, 2013
Tim Bajarin: Steve Jobs’ legacy lives on; Apple’s iWork for iCloud sets new standard for Web-based productivity tools – June 17, 2013
Hands-on with Apple’s new iWork for iCloud beta (with video) – June 14, 2013
Just wish I could get free upgrades to my bought version of pages on ML which no end of playing around with seems to be possible for reason no one can explain.
What!?
The latest Mac iWork upgrade can be downloaded directly from Apple then applied. Dig through the pages to find it HERE:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/
Look for December 2, 2012, iWork 9.3. OR, here is the direct link:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1563/en_US/iWork_9.3_Update.dmg
Note: Apple is having occasional incoherent behavior at least at one of their servers. If you get a 404 page or similar BS, try again.
This is a good idea. They should do it for for osx as well. I have iWork 08 but with no upgrade path to 09 not a chance I’m paying for 09 when it’s currently 13
Good way to promote iWork/iCloud as an alternative to googles spyware
In the meantime: LibreOffice. It’s free. It works. It’s not exactly Mac GUI compliant and has a small learning curve. But it handles just about anything MS Office can throw at it. I use it regularly when dealing with all the .docx crap from other users. But yes, I’d rather use iWork.
https://www.libreoffice.org
It’s a terrible and buggy software, really bad. I removed it and use Pages. Hope Pages will get a big boost this fall, but it is still the best OSX word processor.
I totally agree.
But LibreOffice has leaped past OpenOffice and is incredibly more stable than the early versions. I’ve had it flake out. I’d rather create in Mac GUI conforming apps. But I’ve been using UNIX and DOS and Windows stuff for ages and adjusted to it. If you don’t have iWork, especially pages, it’s an OK alternative. I used to use NeoOffice, which is directly based on OpenOffice. But I dropped it once they REQUIRED a so-called ‘donation’. Donations I like. Forced ‘donations’ I NEVER like. Get real. I could compile NeoOffice source code on my own but haven’t bothered as LibreOffice is fine and is superior to OpenOffice variants.
This will be dandy so long as they don’t crap it up with ads. I’d love for there to be a switch in the settings to just switch ads off.
This would be great if they also have iWork a nice big makeover to.
Kinda stuck with office for work, I’d love iWork to catch up so my personal work machine can be 100% microshat free
This is a logical move.. instead of supporting a whole lot of versions and different Mac OS.. they should give a easy upgrade path to the latest Apple software which will leave them only to work with making things work with different hardware and that too is limited to the OS which acts as a layer between the different softwares and the underlying hardware.
MDN,
We dont like ads in our mails.
SJ..
or he said something like that when launching iCloud.
So make it free and no ads.. They make their profits by the truck loads from the devices that they sell and which we love to buy. 🙂
Decimating MS Office slowly but surely.
I find the iOS versions of these apps to be of less use than they might be because they are not 100% compatible with the Mac versions. That is also reducing the utility and, consequently, the amount of use I make of iCloud.
I suppose I’d have less grounds to complain if they were free.