Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Possibility of built-in iWork on Mac
- Thread starter wsw1217
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple has always shipped Macs with iLife (since it was originally released) for free, and never with more than a trial of iWork. Why would this change now?
Considering that iLife is commercial for all new versions (unless you buy a new Mac) they arent going to change anything about their other commercial apps like iWork. iLife isnt part of the OS anyhow - you dont get updates along with the OS updates and updates for those apps are always separate.
I am afraid i didn't make my point clear.
Let me put this way.
Will new Macs come with iWork for free in the foreseeable future.
Actually your point was clear. Nobody foresees it happening. However, since none of us are privy to Apple's plans, who knows what could happen.
If you need a piece of iWork, get it now. Don't bother with all 3 applications unless you need them.
Note: iLife is bundled with new Macs, not built in.
Sorry for my poor English. I don't know how to put it . Yes. I actually "built-in" in my context means 'bundled".
So if 3 or 5 years later, almost everyone has a new Mac, then almost everyone has iLife on his Mac. So it is kindle of build-in.
I got iWork on my Mac. I want to discuss what is Apple up to.
My point is that it is good for UX if Apple can include iWork on both macs and ios devices. So people don't need third-party apps to access their documents. With the help of iCloud, the experience will be really good.
Actually, Preview on the Mac opens (not edits) Microsoft Word, Pages, and PDF files. No company really bundles office software with their computers, as it probably takes away from potential sales.
For the foreseeable future, I'm confident that iWork will be separate from the included iLife suite.
I dont think so for the same reason that any PC maker will include MS office with Windows PCs - it works better as a separate commercial product for those who want it. And lets be honest here, most people are looking for Office when they want a Word Processing suite.
i think if Apple includes iWork on iOS devices and OS X devices and tells people that you can edit and save as WORD documents and it can sync between different devices via iCloud. i think iWork user base will go up. i am not saying iWork will totally replace WORD, but it gives users a option and provides basis features suit most of people to do basic editing or just viewing. if someone finds iWork doesn't satisfy what he wants, then he can find another app. As Documents in iCloud is very important, i think Apple will include iWork in their new devices(iOS and OS X). Maybe i am wrong.
Apple has actually moved away from bundling software with their devices. Is the iLife suite included on the iOS platform? No.
The main point is that if Documents in the Cloud works as promised between OS X 10.8 and iOS, iWork use will go up and Apple will sell more licenses. If Documents in the Cloud does not work as promised, no amount of free software will increase iWork use among consumers.
Except the products as they are now dont do that. At best iWork on the Mac only exports to Word and I dont think that the iOS version can even do that. And frankly, the more complex pages files gets, the less compatible they are with Office.
iWork is built to work with their native files and I just dont see this changing at all. The programs dont do this now and Apple has never changed this in all of the versions that are out. Worse yet, Pages isnt designed primarily with word processing in mind.
It just isnt going to happen - not when they can just make money selling them after market.
Microsoft is bundling Office 15 in with Windows 8 (RT) free of charge, so don't exclude this possibility entirely.
http://www.itproportal.com/2012/04/17/windows-rt-secret-weapon-free-office-15-suite/
Plus, who cares? iWork is out-of-date and only partially as useful as Office 2011. If a user wants files with universal compatibility and the normal people's Save As command then it's Office 2011 again. In the long run .numbers and .pages files are pretty useless.
Even the free Office-like suites are better than iWork and more universally compatible.
Even the free Office-like suites are better than iWork and more universally compatible.
Is it the full version of office? Sounds like its their basic version. Anyway, we are talking about an unreleased product - anything can happen until then. When it ships, we will see then.
iWork built in is a fantastic idea. I think we are at the stage were buying a word processing package is very 1990s. It seems like a good marketing tactic to push sales for OSX over windows which is going to be the biggest rival against apple sales.