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iOS 7 Beta Suggests iWork, iLife iOS Apps May Soon Be Free

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Apr 12, 2001
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A welcome screen discovered in the iOS 7 beta suggests that Apple's iWork and iLife iOS applications may be available for free when the OS launches this fall, according to German site ifun [Google Translate].

The download screen is similar to this one that was discovered in the iOS 6 beta last year. It encourages customers to download free Apple apps to "get the most out of your iPhone."

appleapps.jpg
iPhoto and iMovie are available on the App Store for $4.99 each, while Pages, Numbers and Keynote are $9.99. GarageBand is missing from the screen, but there is no reason to think it would not go free as well.

The launch of iWork for iCloud at WWDC in June suggested that iWork could become free, as no pricing was mentioned at the show. Offering Apple's polished iWork and iLife applications for free -- much like iLife apps have always been free with the purchase of a new Mac -- would be a strong differentiator for the iPhone and iPad.

Article Link: iOS 7 Beta Suggests iWork, iLife iOS Apps May Soon Be Free
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/09/ios-7-beta-suggests-iwork-ilife-ios-apps-may-soon-be-free/
It sure would be nice if there were new versions of iWork for OS X apps coming out, and also free.
 
Makes sense.

If they are going to have the web apps, that are included with iCloud free, like MS SkyDrive and GoogleDrive, it would be silly if they weren't accessible on mobile.

Also a huge boon to education systems which are pushing iPads to students.
 
Each app's value already far exceeds its current cost. Totally unnecessary to make them free. All the more impressive and awesome if this happens.
 
Hmm. I was just about to purchase Pages. This rumor complicates the decision.
 
Great for iPad

This could be very big for education. Having access to free iWork applications actually would help sell the iPad as more than just a content consumption device. I am very interested in seeing this come to fruition.
 
Great move if true. Yet they should _almost_ be included with iOS, but since some people don't need them it saves space on some devices instead of bloating everything like most android manufacturers.
 
As holder of an unpaid Apple Developer account, Apple sent me an invite to use the beta version of the iCloud versions of the iWork suite. First time they've ever asked me to do that. Pretty impressive implementation. Perhaps they are going "all iCloud" and free on both suites? Now that would be something!
 
blackburn said:
Great move if true. Yet they should _almost_ be included with iOS, but since some people don't need them it saves space on some devices instead of bloating everything like most android manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Also, if they were included with the OS itself, they could not be independently updated at will, just like the typical system apps.
 
This is bad, IMO. The iWork suite works incredibly bad for me - it's slow, buggy, somewhat limited. I would rather have an upgraded version (after all this years...) than just adding buggy Cloud functionality and making them free.
 
This is a big, bold and aggressive move, if true.

Apple makes it's money from hardware and they add value to that hardware through the ecosystem and through integration. A range of free, high quality apps, exclusively for Apple customers, would be a great added value piece.
 
I've been wondering about this--since the web versions are free already. Are they planning to make the web versions tied to purchased apps later, and they're only free for beta testing? Or will ALL the versions be free? Sounds like maybe the latter.

Or just a glitch in that screen.

P.S. I hope GaragBand keeps certain skeuomorphic elements--they're uniquely appropriate there.

Teste said:
This is bad, IMO. The iWork suite works incredibly bad for me - it's slow, buggy, somewhat limited. I would rather have an upgraded version (after all this years...) than just adding buggy Cloud functionality and making them free.
Click to expand...

I use Numbers and Pages and they've been great. But fear not: some companies make an app free to abandon it. Apple would never promote an app in the store in that case: it would vanish from the store instead. If Apple does make these free, they will also continue to receive updates. The fact that Apple has been putting so much work into the web versions shows that these products are still important. Even if it has taken time to see what they're cooking, upgraded apps are surely on the way.
 
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