The funny thing is, even though Apple has not made any significant updates to iWork '09, Keynote is still the best presentation App on the Mac, and according to this current Macrumors
poll, Pages is still regarded as the best word processor for the Mac as well.
"best word processor for the Mac", you said.
Well, that's the whole point. Apple Pages and Keynote may be regarded as the best word processor and presentation softwares for the Mac by many users, despite not having a significant update in almost four years.
And that's just because Microsoft Office for Mac is a very buggy piece of software. It seems like it was made by Microsoft just to prove the point that Windows is better.
But one may well note that Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows is just around the corner to be released, and it's a great piece of software. Lots of features. Word for Windows can now open and edit PDF files while keeping the original formatting intact.
Does it really matter if iWork is or is not the best office suite for the Mac? What really matters is that there is a great office suite for Windows in which Microsoft is investing about a billion dollars a year and it's shapping even better. That's where the real competition is. Office for Windows is the thing. Office for Mac doesn't really count.
And while Microsoft Office for Windows keeps getting better, iWork seems to be gathering dust. Does Apple even care about it? It seems like that Apple thinks that nobody is going back to Windows just because of Office, or that nobody needs all the features Office has. But it may well be wrong.