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December 18, 2006

software

I work, you work, but usually not with iWork

Posted Dec. 18, ’06, 12:18 PM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | Software

iWorkLouis Gray over at The Apple Blog has written a piece that questions the success of Apple’s iWork suite. He points out the absence of even one mention of iWork in Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads, some eye opening market share data (at the beginning of 2006, iWork had a 2% market share), and the fact that iWork didn’t receive a single slide during Steve Jobs’ 2006 Macworld keynote.

Louis attributes this lack of popularity, especially when held in comparison to apps like Safari, Garageband, and iCal, to the fact that those apps are free, whereas iWork requires users to pay for a license. I (as usual) have a different theory.

People use software to accomplish a certain goal. In the case of Pages and Keynote, that goal would be document creation and presentation respectively. The trouble is, in nine out of ten instances, those tasks require compatibility with multiple machines, especially in the case of the latter. Since the probability of those multiple machines all being Macs is slim, the only cross platform solutions just happen to be the market leader, Microsoft Office, and web-based apps like those offered by Google.

Also, students and business users alike need to make things called spreadsheets. iWork has perhaps, heard of these, but really, you need an app like Excel to handle large amounts of data. That usually means an Office license. Unless iWork can make a Microsoft Office license unnecessary, it will always be an unnecessary “extra.”


16 Comments

Kordan Harvey said:

I would agree except that the reason that I pay for iWork is soley for Keynote. This program to me is light years a head of Powerpoint. I just do the presentation for my Powerbook so that I don't have to export to a powerpoint file.

December 18, 2006 12:50 PM
John Anthony Evans said:

Cross platform issues? Before you write something do you actually take the time to do any research?

I work in a Windows world with my Mac. I spend a stupid amount of time making presentations and creating documents that need to be shared with my Windows running friends. Not just shared but worked upon which means sending files back and forth all day long.

Keynote is actually more 'cross platform' than Powerpoint. It will flawlessly open powerpoint files and will also flawlessly generate them. Pages does a stellar job with word documents also.

Neither are 100% perfect but then to be fair neither are Microsofts own tools at handling their own file formats.

The difference between iWork and Office is that of 'power' or perceived power and some advanced features that iWork lacks such as reviewing documents (specifically Pages because Keynote is way ahead of the curve).

Personally I have great disdain for Word and Excel because both of them make me feel like I am wrestling Godzilla in a vat of treacle.

December 18, 2006 12:51 PM
Sean Coffee Author Profile Page said:

I want to use iWork, I really do. I bought it in '05, upgraded (i.e. bought it again) in '06. But if I did an honest accounting of dollars per use... yeah, I don't want to go there. Suffice to say that, like many of us it seems, I don't really use iWork much. For me, it boils down to this: I love Apple because they make better stuff than other companies do. I like having a better laptop, a better OS, a better music player, a better CEO... And iWork simply isn't better than some of the alternatives. I appreciate the hell out of any option other than MS, but if you're gonna do it, do it right. That's usually Apple's ethos. Not so with iWork.

Here's a little thought experiment: It's '04. Someone tells you that Apple is about to make their own version of Word. Think about the amazing piece of essential software you'd have conjured up. It might have had cool stuff like Write Room's full page mode, or VoodooPad's wiki. Imagine an Apple designed blogging-Journaling-outlining-note taking app that made planning and writing a novel as easy as crafting a business letter. That product you imagined might have been a lot of things -- but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been something as watered down as Pages.

I won't be buying iWork '07. Until, y'know, Steve convinces me I'm totally wrong and he really needs by money again.

December 18, 2006 12:58 PM
Dave said:

With MacBU dropping VB support, Mac Office files will be little more compatible with Windows than iWork files. This might help iWork make some inroads (of course, they need a Spreadsheet, as you point out).

December 18, 2006 1:08 PM
Dan--the man said:

I plan on buying iWork '07. I haven't bought the others but I think this one will be pretty good. Good enough for me. I don't really even need spreadsheets, but if they add a spreadsheet program that'll be great. For me and a few friends paying $20 each, it's absolutely worth it for Pages and Kenote. I don't like the idea of putting Microsoft software on my Mac.

Hopefully it gets a lot better in '07.

December 18, 2006 1:10 PM
shadownight said:

I actually like Pages a lot. It handles and outputs Word files well enough, and I normally just need to print the stuff anyway. I really hate Word, especially when it comes to working with graphics and such. And it's not blind, OMG I HATE MS hate, it's hate that I got out of using it for several years.

December 18, 2006 2:06 PM
Moe said:

Wet with excitement, I went out and bought iWork when it first came out. I played with it a little, did some creative things with it, got bored and went back to picking my nose.

iWork 06 came out, it featured improved charts, eye candy, nicer templates and I (wet with excitement again) went and bought it. Played with it a little, did some nice presentations with some 3D charts then went back to picking my nose. I'm seeing a trend here.

I have to agree though that Keynote is a better presentation software than Powerpoint, but Pages is like my first girlfriend... she will kiss me, wet me with excitement and then say, I'll see you tomorrow. Back to picking my nose!

What have I done? I've gone the way of the pervert... I purchased Office for Mac. I feel dirty, but it does exactly what I need it to do (except for powerpoint).

No more teasing Steve, no more teasing.

December 18, 2006 2:14 PM
tcrooks said:

I use Pages week in, week out and have done so for over a year for letters, newsletters, brochures, etc.. How I ever put up with Word I just don't know!

I'm not after loadsa features just that Apple continues to work on the UI to make it slicker to use.

December 18, 2006 2:23 PM
rue said:

I use iWork '06 every day. I find both parts to be excellent for what I do in the classroom. I like the ability to export to other formats such as PDF and Word. Speaking of Word, I hate the interface and too many simple functions are buried too deeply.

December 18, 2006 2:45 PM
Peter said:

Frankly, I still use AppleWorks. The two things I do with AppleWorks are spreadsheets and word-processing. As soon as iWork has a spreadsheet, I'm there. Until then, I'll stick with AppleWorks.

December 18, 2006 4:15 PM
exnihilo said:

I use iWork '05 and I really really hate the way it does font changes. I don't believe iWork is meant to compete with MS Office. I think it's meant to give people a low cost alternative to it. That 2% figure seems a bit dubious to me. Is that looking at the over all market INCLUDING PCs? That actually not bad, but I think it would be better to look a specific markets, like education and SOHO. When I was taking some university extension classes, I could have bought MS word for $150 or iWork for $50 (both edu. lisc). I chose to buy iWork. There must be many people who have done the same.

December 18, 2006 4:17 PM
MEP said:

The question is one of need. I bought iWork when it was first released and thought it was pretty cool. I can't remember using it for anything.

Document creation is something I rarely do anymore, and I never used a word processor for writing (vim all the way). Pages was great for formatting any copy I wrote, but only if I intended to print it. The rest of the time, it's good old HTML for me or something else like...

...Word. As much as I hate it, I end up using Word because I have to share documents with real people and not the imaginary Mac users whom I wish were my colleagues and coworkers.

I wouldn't use Word at all if could help it, but I can't, so why pay for another word processor? The only Office app I actually like is Excel which really is a very good spreadsheet tool.

If Apple put a decent spreadsheet tool in iWork, then I might upgrade to the next version. As it is I don't even have my existing license of iWork installed on my new machine. It's baffling to me that Apple hasn't addressed the spreadsheet issue yet.

December 18, 2006 5:08 PM
Kuswanto said:

I use Pages natively now, complete ly forget about Neo Office.

To me, Pages is like Word with style. I do all my paper work wit it. PDF export is quite nice too.

But, the export to .Doc is quite poor.

December 18, 2006 6:55 PM
niclet said:

I use all the iWork environment every day. Pages and Keynotes are great and I've banned ALL M$ apps of my Macs (it's a health decision to fight stress generated mainly by the Office suite).

Even if iWork, mostly Pages, need more features and more adaptation with other languages (especially with french canadian which is a big joke!), but the output is incredibly awesome! Since I heard that iWork is the AppleWorks new gen, I'm sure it will be increasingly complete with the years.

Oh! yes, I want also to point out that TextEdit is pretty good too. Okay, it's not part of iWork but who cares.

December 18, 2006 8:23 PM
Scott said:

Yep, I agree with 100%.

No "Numbers," no Office replacement. It's just that simple. I've paid for both (and will get iWork '07 when it comes out - with a M$ anti-trust settlement coupon!), but Excel will remain on my dock until "Numbers" comes along (Word and PowerPoint already relegated to the Office folder in Apps).

Pity. Just this morning I spent (wasted) 20 min. swearing at Excel because of a stupid error message involving modifying a chart using M$ dialog boxes that wouldn't occur if I edited the chart's formulas directly (using the exact same syntax).

December 18, 2006 8:38 PM
MikeM said:

I've been using Pages for normal, everday document creation since it came out, and overall I'm quite happy with it (though I wish there were a way to invoke paragraph styles with a command-key combination.)

Just as an earlier poster said, I loathe Word with a passion, and unless the Word document I receive from someone else requires only the most minor of changes, I ALWAYS open it in Pages, make my copy and formatting changes, and then export it back to Word.

This minimal effort is repaid a thousandfold, because I know that in Pages, I'll be able to do what *I* want to do to the document, rather than what Word (almost always incorrectly) *assumes* I want to do with it.

I literally shake my head with my eyes bugging out of it sometimes when I'm confronted with some of Word's more outrageous choices.

Why would ANYONE, in their wildest possible dreams, imagine that when I backspace at the beginning of a paragraph to remove an extra blank line above it -- I really really want that entire paragraph of 12-point text to take on the text attributes of the 18-point bold headline that's a line further up???

As long as I'm ranting...why is it that there's a command-key combination for the less frequently used Section Break in Word, and yet no command-key combination for the much more frequently used Page Break???

I've reached the conclusion that the people who programmed Word weren't just incompetent...they had to have been willfully EVIL.

I'll stick with Pages, thanks...not perfect, but a million times preferable to Word for the kind of writing I do.

December 18, 2006 10:25 PM

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