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It's official: iWork is a flop

M

mac-er

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 9, 2003
1,452
0
AppleInsider is reporting that sales of iWork are dismal, and Apple is trying to save sales.

It is giving away 30 day free trials with Tiger, encouraging resellers to bundle it or give away rebates for it.

And, Apple is literally giving it away. It is encouraging resellers (and prseumably its own staff) to give it away to customers to help solve customer service issues.

(So, everyone who preordered Tiger and didn't get it today might be getting iWork if you complain) :D
 
mac-er said:
AppleInsider is reporting that sales of iWork are dismal, and Apple is trying to save sales.

It is giving away 30 day free trials with Tiger, encouraging resellers to bundle it or give away rebates for it.

And, Apple is literally giving it away. It is encouraging resellers (and prseumably its own staff) to give it away to customers to help solve customer service issues.

(So, everyone who preordered Tiger and didn't get it today might be getting iWork if you complain) :D
Click to expand...

I disagree... I love it, its very usable for 99.99 percent of the stuff most people need and with out the bloat. Well see what happens to sales when they add a spread sheet program (this is what I thing Steve means when he said they are building a successor to Appleworks.).

Sure there are something’s I would change... but they are minor in the whole. I think its still to early to call it a flop.
 
I plan on buying it tonight at the release party maybe they will give it to me for free then :p I just don't like powerpoint and want to use Keynote
 
Well, it certainly isn't a roaring success.

If they are giving it away, its a flop.
 
If they can come up with a decent spreadsheet app... and bundle it with Keynote and Filemaker. Then they'd have an office suite.

I purchased Mac Office only because I needed Excel. The Appleworks spreadsheet doesn't/didn't handle multiple sheets and couldn't store 65,000+ rows a la Excel. I needed these "ops" because I work with some tab-delimited files from the USGS which are quite large.

I use TextEdit instead of Word because it gets the job done for me.

In retrospect, I should've tried OpenOffice.
 
maybe for business stuff it isn't the greatest thing in the world, but i am getting it for School, which i think is what it is bought for the most, (aside from presentations) because iWork is only 49 education price while Office is 149 (i believe) for the students version. And a lot of students would rather spend 49 than 149 (I will have both thou >>)
 
I would like a 30-day trial to see if it's useful for me. This isn't necessarily an indication that it's flopping; it's sensible marketing.
 
I think it was a mistake not to bundle it in with the consumer macs. I know that would be giving it away free as well but at least bundling it would buy it acceptance.
 
I would hope they would make it something unique and not just some clone of MS Office.

What we need is an alternative to Quicken. I think Apple could do wonders with personal finance software.

If they put that in iWork, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
 
I do not like iWork. When you type sometimes you the computer (1.5ghz PB G4 w/512mb ram) will get behind you.

I think iWork could be a very good program to use because you could make awesome looking things but it is to slow.

P.S.- Despite popular belief there is a spell check- its
Edit menu>Spelling>Check Spelling.
 
i got my demo cd as well and i think it is a great idea ! if i like it then i will buy it , if apple did more demos like final cut express then i think they would sell more !

but

this also opens up more apple software for the pirates that flogg it down the market and via fileshares

TIGERRIFFIC
 
iWork '06 will be better.

I tried iWork '05 at an Apple store once on a PowerMac Dual 2 GHz with 2.5 GB RAM and it was probably the worst program ever made by Apple - sluggish, so un-user friendly. I'm telling you it was the most annoying experience.

Maybe it was that computer or SOMETHING...
 
dotdotdot said:
iWork '06 will be better.

I tried iWork '05 at an Apple store once on a PowerMac Dual 2 GHz with 2.5 GB RAM and it was probably the worst program ever made by Apple - sluggish, so un-user friendly. I'm telling you it was the most annoying experience.

Maybe it was that computer or SOMETHING...
Click to expand...


i noticed in the apple store that iworks was as fast on a mikni as on a g5 2.5ghz. nevertheless i bought it because i love keynote and pages. now they just need to add a few more features, more templates and market it to consumers. steve somehow recommended it to pro's and it's not good enough for that yet.

andi
 
The problem with iWork is that it doesn't have all the elements of Microsoft Office or all the elements of AppleWorks (which it's really intended to replace). iWork is essentially Keynote 2.0 with a word processor (Pages) thrown in for free. That is not a "suite" of software.

Office is a suite of 4 programs:

Word Processing - Word
Presentation - PowerPoint
Calendar/Mail - Entourage
Spreadsheet - Excel

AppleWorks is a suite of 6 components:

Word Processing
Presentation
Spreadsheet
Database
Drawing
Painting

So iWork should be the following:

Word Processing - Pages
Presentation - Keynote
E-Mail/Calendar - Handled by Mail/iCal/Address Book already.
Spreadsheet - I'm certain "Cells" is being worked on in a lab somewhere.
Database - Apple needs a "FileMaker Lite", limited features, easy to use.
Drawing/Painting - Apple needs a "MacPaint '05", simple graphics program.

iWork currently can't replace either Office or AppleWorks, which is why Apple says "With iWork, we're building the successor to AppleWorks". They KNOW they are still building it, because it's incomplete...let's hope it's sooner rather than later that they really flesh it out. It's a great concept but lacking in substance right now.
 
I really want to like iWork and I WANT to find some justification for me to buy/use it, but I think iWork right now is a mixed bag... and so I'm waiting for v2.

It can be broken down to 4 major issues:

1. Keynote 2 - I think Keynote 2 is great. I doubt anyone would seriously disagree. Unfortunately, I just don't have much use for it right now.

2. Pages - When I want to write something, I use NisusWriter Express 2.11. I even purchased Express after iWork/Pages was released because after playing with Pages in the Apple Store on a comparable/slightly faster system (the previous PBG4 15" @ 1.33 GHz w/1GB RAM - I'm using a PB G4 15" 1.25GHZ w/1.5GB RAM) I felt it to be too slow for usage as a writing tool. I'm not talking novels here--but documents of 1-8 pages, mainly text with an illustration/chart here and there.

3. I think Pages has a great concept and is a great application to use for developing very arractive documents/newsletters with rich formatting and a pretty good ability to keep people from churning out hideous crap. That said, I have some experience in design and own Illustrator CS (and Photoshop CS) which I use when I want to create something like this. While very nice (and totally appropriate for some), don't want to use a bunch of templates (other than my own!) to produce my documents. (I also wonder how long it will be before we start to experience Pages template fatigue - hopefully Apple will continue to refresh its offerings!)

4. What it's missing -

I would buy it if it included a decent spreadsheet. It doesn't have to be Microsoft Excel, but if it can offer people the 70-80% of the features that people actually use, the iWork suite would become a very different creature.

Next, throw in a simple database, perhaps building on the OpenSource tradition (as with Safari) using SQL. [Apple owns FileMaker, a wonderful and powerful program, but perhaps too much for the scope of iWork - I'd really hate to see iWork cost more than $149 at most (with a full round of programs, of course!)]

As for illustration, follow the QuickTime Pro model and extend Preview (changing the name, of course) with vector drawing/PDF/Core Image tools.

Pixel imaging is already handled in a photo-editing capacity with iPhoto, which covers most people's use, but you could add on some additional editing tools and functionality into that program as well. Really, iPhoto should reside in both iWork and iLife. (I had the dilemma that I wanted iPhoto 5, but have never used iMovie/iDVD, and so an iPhoto enhanced iWork would be much more attractive than iLife - though it should always be a part of iLife as well).

Even with just the addition of a Spreadsheet, I would become a customer, and a simple and effective database would be icing on the cake.
 
When ever (more like if ever) I have to use the microsoft presentation program or the microsoft word processor it is just such a hassle. I was using microsoft's presentation program a little while ago and I spent a ton of time looking for insepector, and I was trying to mask images, etc.


What a hassle.
 
Once you have bought a copy of Office 2004 why would you fork over more money for this program? People that need a productivity suite will buy Office 2004, even though it is a MS product I have to compliment it. It is a great set of programs. It would take Apple a few years to get to the standard that Office has set and more to get that type of brand recognition. The people that don't need that type of program will just use Appleworks that comes standard on a consumer level machine to type a paper or do a spreadsheet. They should just add a Spreadsheet to iWork and then bundle the program with the consumer Macs as a replacement for Appleworks 6, which is getting to be an old program. That is what I would do. Use at more of an incentive for people to buy a Mac along with iLife. Trying to take this program up againt MS Office and sell it in any decent numbers to turn a profit won't work.
 
Its a weak version of Office. For most people, Word, Excel and Powerpoint is enough to make a living, and iWorks doesn't do the work that most people need to get done.

Its simple. Pages is weak. Its nice that Apple tried to "think different" this time, but by purposely going out to make something like Pages.....something that is "innovative" and that nobody could ever blame Apple for copying Microsoft or anyone else.......they also made something that not enough peopl need. That's what you get for thinking so different that most people don't think they need it. ;)
 
Well that is sort of good......help apple or buy a new machine and get iWork :rolleyes: Yes please :D
 
Ensoniq said:
The problem with iWork is that it doesn't have all the elements of Microsoft Office or all the elements of AppleWorks (which it's really intended to replace). iWork is essentially Keynote 2.0 with a word processor (Pages) thrown in for free. That is not a "suite" of software.

Office is a suite of 4 programs:

Word Processing - Word
Presentation - PowerPoint
Calendar/Mail - Entourage
Spreadsheet - Excel

AppleWorks is a suite of 6 components:

Word Processing
Presentation
Spreadsheet
Database
Drawing
Painting

So iWork should be the following:

Word Processing - Pages
Presentation - Keynote
E-Mail/Calendar - Handled by Mail/iCal/Address Book already.
Spreadsheet - I'm certain "Cells" is being worked on in a lab somewhere.
Database - Apple needs a "FileMaker Lite", limited features, easy to use.
Drawing/Painting - Apple needs a "MacPaint '05", simple graphics program.

iWork currently can't replace either Office or AppleWorks, which is why Apple says "With iWork, we're building the successor to AppleWorks". They KNOW they are still building it, because it's incomplete...let's hope it's sooner rather than later that they really flesh it out. It's a great concept but lacking in substance right now.
Click to expand...

If they would make iWork 06 like that then it would be great.......and get a lot bigger sales as well :rolleyes: :D
 
EJBasile said:
I do not like iWork. When you type sometimes you the computer (1.5ghz PB G4 w/512mb ram) will get behind you.

I think iWork could be a very good program to use because you could make awesome looking things but it is to slow.
Click to expand...

You clearly have some issues with your PowerBook... whether that be running apps, hardware, power settings... I don't know.

Also, consider this: iWork was never meant to be a huge revenue-generating product. Its price is clearly indicative of this; Keynote alone went for more.

Apple has Final Cut, Soundtrack, DVD Studio, Shake, Motion... are you telling me with a straight face, that these two little apps were meant to rake in dough?

If anything these moves by Apple are to encourage adoption of separately available, consumer-minded Apple software. Taking iLife away from Tiger and introducing iWork were the first steps.

It's an ease of use product which will attract more users to the Mac, by providing an extremely useful alternative to PowerPoint and a competent word-processor that takes the place of Microsoft Publisher.
 
I like the keynote 2 but pages needs to be improve. Also, I believe iWorks overlaps with too many other applications like AppleWorks and Office, I would buy iWorks if it is able to subsitute and enhances AppleWorks. I think iWorks cause too much confusion with the consumer due to the overlaps. Maybe they should condense AppleWorks and iWorks to iWorks (standard) and iWorks (Professional) with the functionalities as Ensoniq said.
 
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