Good news, iWork fans: it looks like Apple’s sexy office suite is doing relatively well, even if it’s no Microsoft Office in terms of sales. NPD group claims iWork has a 16% market share in the office application business.
Of course, even if that’s nothing close to Redmond, it’s pretty good for the new kid on the block. And when you think that Office still isn’t a universal binary (January can’t come fast enough, can’t it?), it’s inevitable that people are turning away from it. Personally, I really can’t stand PowerPoint and I find Word barely tolerable as long as it doesn’t crash in the middle of my work, which it used to do. Why doesn’t it anymore, you ask? ‘Cause I don’t use it, thanks very much.
OK, I know people out there who truly like Office and that’s fine, but I’m definitely part of the 16% that prefers iWork. It’s not perfect, but it’s slick and it does the job. Maybe when January 15th comes around and Office 2008 ships, I’ll change my mind, but somehow I doubt it.
I think it is important for you to state that it is 16% of the Mac office application market share they hold, not overall.
Some of us still have Christmas shopping to do, so January can just hold its horses.
Does iWork have mail merge or data merge capabilities? Besides the little address book support?