iWork 'Catalyst' vs iWork for Mac

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

In a number of support docs/videos (including WWDC), Apple has been mentioning how the iWork suite of apps from iOS work natively on ARM Mac.

Great, but why is this even a thing? Pages, Numbers and Keynote already have native Mac versions, so why would someone choose to download the iOS versions?

Are we to assume that these apps will, for lack of better words, each be rolled into one version rather than having native versions?

 

[zedsdead]

iWork sadly has been iPad first since it came out, and they have neglected the Mac Apps. As functionally has been restored, they are tossing it out again. It is very frustrating, especially with Pages which I use and love. The page layout functionality is amazing. Hopefully they don't cripple it too much.

 

[Mikael H]

I see two reasons why they would state such a thing:
One possibility is that they may unify the code base entirely using Catalyst, which may or may not mean some nerfed features.
Another possibility is that they're simply stating how great Catalyst works if you put the required work into your apps.

 

[goMac]

The only demos I’m aware of are the native Mac versions running on Apple Silicon. I don’t think Catalyst iWork was ever demoed at WWDC.

 

[Ritsuka]

Did they?
iWork apps already share most of the code between iOS and macOS. The only specific part is the UI, the document renderer is already shared. And the macOS ARM iWork is definitely not going to be Catalyst any time soon.

Probably it was just an example of what's possible without no code change.