Apple updates iWork for business users, but doesn't match the competition

Hide Caption

Keynote on the iPad used for a presentation.

Credit: Grant Wickes via Flickr

Show Caption

Apple released updates to its iWork suite for both Macs and iOS devices this week. iWork is often seen as Apple's version of Office and includes word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation apps (known as Pages, Numbers, and Keynote respectively). Apple introduced the Mac edition of iWork in 2005. The company released iOS versions of all three apps in 2010 along with the original iPad.

The desktop iWork apps include compatibility with Microsoft Office file types and key Office features. They retail for $19.99 each via Apple's Mac App Store - a significant savings over Office for Mac which starts at $119.95 for a single user license of Office for Mac Home and Student edition and goes up to $199.95 for a single license of the Home and Business edition that includes Outlook for Mac.

Although iWork includes compatibility with Office file types, the apps have a decidedly Apple feel to them and include some distinct features. Pages, for example, functions as both a word processing app and a page layout tool with capabilities similar to Adobe's InDesign. Similarly, Numbers goes beyond the typical grid and sheets of Excel and lets users create files that are much more like page layouts or interactive web apps while still offering solid import/export options and the majority of Excel functions. 

Next Up: The Consumerization Of Power
Stay on top of CITE: Subscribe to the InCITE newsletter.

One of the most impressive features in Pages for Mac is its seamless integration with Word's change-tracking and commenting features. Pages not only displays all changes and comments by multiple users when opening a Word document, it also makes it easy for iWork users to accept or reject changes, add comments, and it fully tracks their changes as well - all of which are preserved when the file is saved and later opened using Word.

The same hasn't be universally true of iWork for iOS. Working with Office documents in the iOS apps requires importing them as native files, a process which has historically stripped some functionality - comments, change history, formatting and some visual elements. The files also need to exported after changes are made for others to use them. (Even iWork for Mac documents are subject to some of these issues.)

That's starting to change with this release.

The big feature addition is support for tracking changes in Pages. Mobile support for tracking changes in Word documents had been a major gap in all Office-style apps for iOS devices until earlier this year when both Bytesquared and Quickoffice added the functionality to their iPad apps. Bytesquared added the capability to its iPhone app as well. 

Both offer somewhat better display of changes over Pages, and Quickoffice boasts full comment support. They also offer easier share and sync capabilities via a range of cloud storage solutions including Box, Dropbox, and Google Docs. Their overall interfaces also tend to be more Office-inspired and less Apple-like than the iWork apps. As such, it's easy to argue that they are better business solutions.

That said, the iWork apps are extremely popular. They remain some the most successful commercial apps in the iOS App Store -- all three currently rank in the top 20 of the most popular paid apps and the top 30 of the highest grossing apps. For many users, particularly those who are also iWork for Mac users, the iWork apps simply offer a better overall experience while meeting their needs. That makes this release significant for individual users and businesses that support iOS devices.