Apple introduces an enhanced application that may be valuable for business users and make them forget about Google Docs.
Apple announced a new version of OS X for its Mac PCs and notebooks which they call ‘Mavericks’ in the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. Aside from this new OS, the famous iPad maker also introduced the public an enhanced version of an application developed to take on Google Docs which will be incorporated in the system of iCloud.
Contrary to what others wrote about, iWork is ‘not’ a new application. It has been in the business since 2005 that runs only on OS X and iOS. It first came out with a word processing and page layout function dubbed KeyNote and Pages. Three years later, Apple added Numbers which is similar to our MS Excel. It then got integrated with iCloud for easy storage that functions like Google Docs. The iWork name had been replaced by iCloud.
Apple revived the name iWork for this year’s event and promised to provide better presentation than Google Docs. Users can make their documents, spreadsheets, and presentations even more brilliant and can be accessed anywhere as long as they are using any of the Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Anyone can purchase the entire iWork package from the Apple Store for $79 for all the features—the OS X, Numbers, Keynote and Pages. Users can also purchase each feature separately for $19.99 each. A comparison is also made between Microsoft Works 9 and iWork where the latter is cheaper. Microsoft Works costs $108.99. Google Docs is free.
The new iWork will be available by fall and expected to function on Safari 6.0.3 or later, Chrome 27.0.1 or later and Internet Explorer 9.0.8 or later. Firefox and Opera users will need to wait.
Let’s see how far Apple can reach its plan to take on the established cloud apps of Microsoft and Google. This is another attempt for the company to empower their desktop services and have it integrated with browsers. A demonstration was shown during the event on how the iWork performs on the browsers and well, it seems promising.
