Apple are playing to win today. They are taking a lot of their software (OSX upgrades) as well as iWork free. Tim Cook says they want all their customers to have the latest software and that’s the reason for making things free.
They’re called out Microsoft’s Office 365 pricing of US$99 per year and while they’ll tell you it’s a 1:1 replacement, there are still some serious differences. Like the fact that subscription gets you installs across 5 devices.
Apple are adding a much needed feature to iWork, collaboration. This is done via iCloud syncing, but does allow 2 people to live edit the same file. This is something Office has had for a long time, as well as Google Apps, so is more about Apple catching up than leading the way. Still its a nice addition, lets just hope the iCloud team have their stuff together.
