Apple's iWork Selling Well

MacRumors · Jan 23, 2006

News.com cites data from NPD which reports that Apple's iWork has achieved a 2.7% unit share in 2005 "Office Suite" U.S. Retail Sales. This edges out Corel's WordPerfect Office which has as 1.6% share.

Apple's share is particularly impressive considering that iWork runs only on Macs, which account for a small fraction of computers, said NPD analyst Chris Swenson. "Apple's success for iWork has been pretty surprising," he said.

Microsoft Office, of course, carries approximately 95% of the remaining unit sales. When limiting the data to Mac sales only, Apple's iWork carries a 17.4% share compared to 82% for Microsoft.

As with all statistics, these numbers must be taken in context. Corel notes that these sales do not take into account commercial sales and distributor bundles which would likely rival iWork total sales. Regardless, it represents a notable accomplishment.

Apple updated iWork earlier this year and has been rumored to add a spreadsheet component.

stridey · Jan 23, 2006

Well, that's nice to hear. I had no idea iWork was selling at all, what with it having neither a spreadsheet nor word processing app.

paulchen · Jan 23, 2006

Openoffice

I cannot understand why people are buying ms office becaus openoffice is free and has more opions than 99% of all the people need.

G5Unit · Jan 23, 2006

I have the trial and I'm thinking about buying. It is very nicely laid out, I just want to make keynotes as nice as Steaves!

ijimk · Jan 23, 2006

I do enjoy iwork. I am debating on updating from 05 to 06.

MacFan26 · Jan 23, 2006

stridey said:
word processing app.

Pages is a good enough word processing app. I'm betting not everytime people open it they're going to use it make a brochure or something. There are definitely things it does better than Microsoft Word in terms of word processing.

Bern · Jan 23, 2006

I had iWork '05 and ran Word alongside. I updated to iWork '06 and banished Word from my Mac forever. I am totally M$ free.

Frankly for me M$ Office is overkill. Entourage is clunky, Word is bloated, Excel was useless to me and Powerpoint was a hit and miss experience. When I consider the stable and more user friendly Apple alternatives I can't imagine why I would ever have it back clogging up my ram and chewing up space on my hard drive.

Perhaps a lot of other Mac users have started to feel the same way (especially with the obvious disregard to Mac users M$ have recently displayed) and have migrated to iWork '06 as a stress free alternative.

Stella · Jan 23, 2006

I didn't realise WordPerfect Suite was still being sold. I thought, Novell.. Borland, nope.. errr..... Corel had given up on it. ( WP has been sold on more times than a hooker ;-) ).

Personally, I always thought WP was a far better word processor than Word - and generally, far more innovative ( in the 90s ).

oldMac · Jan 23, 2006

Open Office

paulchen said:
I cannot understand why people are buying ms office becaus openoffice is free and has more opions than 99% of all the people need.

Probably because Open Office is big, slow and un-mac-like. NeoOffice makes it more mac-like, but still big and slow.

jbh001 · Jan 23, 2006

paulchen said:
I cannot understand why people are buying ms office becaus openoffice is free and has more opions than 99% of all the people need.

Compared to MS Word, OpenOffice is just clunky and sucks.
Compared to WordPerfect, MS Word is just clunky and sucks.
I just sent an email to Corel telling them if they will re-release WordPerfect for Tiger and include ODF support, I will buy it.

portent · Jan 23, 2006

I was very surprised that iWork didn't get a spreadsheet this year. Maybe in iWork '07....

paulchen said:
I cannot understand why people are buying ms office becaus openoffice is free and has more opions than 99% of all the people need.

Simple. Interoperability between Word and Writer is not perfect yet. I've had situations where I was handed a Word doc that got mangled when I tried to edit it in OpenOffice. I spent half an hour re-editing it in Word (on a PC, no less) and then I spent the money to buy Office.

Personally, I still use AppleWorks when I don't have to share my documents, but many people still need Office, simply because everyone else still has office.

~Shard~ · Jan 23, 2006

Great to hear, although a little surprising since Apple didn't really update the suite in a major way at MWSF, IMO. If they can add in a spreadsheet app in iWork 07 and a database type of program (perhaps they'll just buy Filemaker

) then I think they'll be poised to do even better.

Me, I still use Office v.X

Stella · Jan 23, 2006

iWork has very basic spreadsheet capabilities doesn't it - abeit, very basic?

I'm too surprised Apple didn't offer a spreadsheet app and also a cut down version of Filemaker or even make use of CoreData ( SQLite database engine at the heart).

Though I suppose Apple have to watch what they are doing - the last thing they need is for microsoft to drop Mac Office.

Nevertheless, the marketshare is rather good.

I like OpenOffice / Star Office ( unavailable on OSX ), its just a shame OO stinks on OSX. Windows and Linux versions are great.

portent said:
I was very surprised that iWork didn't get a spreadsheet this year. Maybe in iWork '07....

Simple. Interoperability between Word and Writer is not perfect yet. I've had situations where I was handed a Word doc that got mangled when I tried to edit it in OpenOffice. I spent half an hour re-editing it in Word, and then I spent the money to buy Office.

Personally, I still use AppleWorks when I don't have to share my documents, but many people still need Office, simply because everyone else still has office.

~Shard~ · Jan 23, 2006

Stella said:
iWork has very basic spreadsheet capabilities doesn't it - abeit, very basic?

Yep - it's integrated into Pages and Keynote though, not a standalone app.

Stella said:
I'm too surprised Apple didn't offer a spreadsheet app and also a cut down version of Filemaker or even make use of CoreData ( SQLite database engine at the heart).

Though I suppose Apple have to watch what they are doing - the last thing they need is for microsoft to drop Mac Office.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. Mind you, that MS rep came out publicly at MWSF and said MS would continue development for Office for Mac until, when was it, 2008 or so?

amateurmacfreak · Jan 23, 2006

stridey said:
Well, that's nice to hear. I had no idea iWork was selling at all, what with it having neither a spreadsheet nor word processing app.

Seriously... um, what's in it again? I love Apple, but the only thing I really like about Microsoft is in this area: Microsoft Office for Mac.

Now for for Windows.... that's a different story.

Oh, and no offense to iWorks people. I just seriously don't have much if an understanding of it past Pages, and a very basic understanding at that.

bretm · Jan 23, 2006

~Shard~ said:
Yep - it's integrated into Pages and Keynote though, not a standalone app.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. Mind you, that MS rep came out publicly at MWSF and said MS would continue development for Office for Mac until, when was it, 2008 or so?

She said 5 years. 2011.

InsiderTravels · Jan 23, 2006

Filemaker is already owned by Apple

~Shard~ said:
Great to hear, although a little surprising since Apple didn't really update the suite in a major way at MWSF, IMO. If they can add in a spreadsheet app in iWork 07 and a database type of program (perhaps they'll just buy Filemaker ) then I think they'll be poised to do even better.

Me, I still use Office v.X

You do know, don't you, that Filemaker is an Apple subsidiary? I couldn't tell for sure if you were being facetious or not, so I thought I'd throw that in there.

~Shard~ · Jan 23, 2006

bretm said:
She said 5 years. 2011.

Ah cool, thanks for this, couldn't remember the specific amount of time which was quoted.

InsiderTravels said:
You do know, don't you, that Filemaker is an Apple subsidiary? I couldn't tell for sure if you were being facetious or not, so I thought I'd throw that in there.

Yes, sorry, sometimes my sense of humor doesn't come through properly in text.

amateurmacfreak · Jan 23, 2006

Bern said:
I had iWork '05 and ran Word alongside. I updated to iWork '06 and banished Word from my Mac forever. I am totally M$ free.

Frankly for me M$ Office is overkill. Entourage is clunky, Word is bloated, Excel was useless to me and Powerpoint was a hit and miss experience. When I consider the stable and more user friendly Apple alternatives I can't imagine why I would ever have it back clogging up my ram and chewing up space on my hard drive.

Perhaps a lot of other Mac users have started to feel the same way (especially with the obvious disregard to Mac users M$ have recently displayed) and have migrated to iWork '06 as a stress free alternative.

Agh. You're so pure.

iAlan · Jan 23, 2006

mangis said:
Still unavailable in Japan.

Huh?

Do you mean iWork 06 or iWork in general?

I was at hte Shibuya Apple Store last week and iLife 06 was avaulable as was the newly packaged .Mac (sitting next to iLife in the new little acrylic 'bins'). I wasn'(t looking for iWork 06 so don't know if it was there or not, but iWork 05 has been around for well, a year!

Demon · Jan 23, 2006

Awesome

I've been using iWorks since it was still keynote. it was my highest anticipated announcement actually. when Macrumors posted that there would be an update, i knew something good was coming out. keynote and pages is so far superior for everyday presentations and publishing that i actually enjoy making them. being a doctor, i have to make plenty, keep up the good work iWork designers!

amateurmacfreak · Jan 23, 2006

iAlan said:
Huh?

Do you mean iWork 06 or iWork in general?

I was at hte Shibuya Apple Store last week and iLife 06 was avaulable as was the newly packaged .Mac (sitting next to iLife in the new little acrylic 'bins'). I wasn'(t looking for iWork 06 so don't know if it was there or not, but iWork 05 has been around for well, a year!

I totally agree with your iPod video signature. But I still call it that sometimes, to get a reaction.

Person: You have an iPod?
Me: Heck yes, a 5G 30GB Black iPod.
Person: Oh. Ok.

2nd scenario:

Person: You have an iPod?
Me: Yeah, a 5G 30GB Black iPod video.
Person: OMG!! AWESOME!! You have a video?!?!?!?!!??

So it's my "5G 30GB Black iPod, and yes, that means it has video."

Counterfit · Jan 23, 2006

~Shard~ said:
(perhaps they'll just buy Filemaker )

Er, Apple already owns Filemaker...

There are a few things I like in Appleworks that just aren't in Pages, (I think, I haven't looked at 06 yet), so I'll hold off for now. There are some neat features in Word too, but red-eye removal is NOT one of them. Why the hell is that in a word processor anyway?

iAlan · Jan 23, 2006

portent said:
I was very surprised that iWork didn't get a spreadsheet this year. Maybe in iWork '07....

Maybe with MS committing to 5 years of development of MS Orifice for Mac, Apple has agreed to hold of on a spreadsheet app in iWork.

I do think Apple needs MS Orifice as this most probably the best know Windows app out there and a lot of folks seem to think they need it.

magi.sys · Jan 23, 2006

Good to hear iwork is selling well.
I wouldn't consider it an office suite until they get an spreadsheet app in it though.

Apple's iWork Selling Well

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