Has Apple abandoned iWork?

October 4, 2012 12:51 PM

So I'm trying to find details on the next versions iWork - but no one seems to know anything. Has Apple given up on it's office suite?

I'd like to buy them to open up documents from folks in their native format, but if it's going to be updated in say the next 6 months or so, I can wait.

posted by Brent Parker to computers & internet (4 answers total)

I speak with no authority, but my impression is this: Apple now sells dirt-cheap versions of these apps through the App Store, and probably is going to emphasize this mode of distribution now. It appears that upgrades to those apps are automatic and free.
posted by yclipse at 1:08 PM on October 4, 2012

iWork for iOS came out just a couple of months ago, so I think it's safe to say it's not abandoned. But I haven't heard any rumors about a new version of the Mac edition, in the next six months or otherwise.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:12 PM on October 4, 2012

Can't hold me to this, but I have the impression that anybody who buys iWork '09 on the Mac App Store now will probably get a free in-stream update to iWork '1X.

I have no idea why it stalled out on OSX for so long. I'm confident it's not abandoned but it's getting very curious...
posted by whittaker at 3:16 PM on October 4, 2012

"So I'm trying to find details on the next versions iWork - but no one seems to know anything."

Since when has Apple leaked / advertised details about upcoming versions of anything? It's just not what they do. But there's some recent PR-speak from Apple about iWork in this Macrumors post…

That said, since the App store kicked off they seem to have quietly dropped the "09" part of "iWork '09" (in the name, if not in the description!), sell the apps separately, and have been releasing (free) incremental updates (the last in 07/12 to support ML, iCloud, & the retina MBPs).

But - and I say this as someone who likes Pages so much he very nearly wrote his thesis in it, because for general formatting / TOC / sectioning it works so much more logically than Word - if you're looking for good compatibility with Office formats (i.e. passing stuff to & from Office users), don't bother. Cross-compatibility is fairly spotty; it'll read & write to older Office formats, but often has formatting issues reading / writing Word docs, doesn't support everything in Excel / PowerPoint, etc. Buy Office, or download Open/Libre/NeoOffice.
posted by Pinback at 3:30 PM on October 4, 2012 [1 favorite]