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iWork to Become a Web Application at Macworld?

According to the rumor site, that means the future versions of Numbers, Pages and Keynote will be entirely browser based.

...and the only supported browser will be Safari 4, which will only be available for Snow Leopard.

Why was I hating on Microsoft again?
 
"Sorry boss didnt make the presentation because my internet connection died"
how stupid is this
its never going to happen
9to5mac sucks
end of story
:apple:
 
A logical move

It is a logical move but people are making the assumption that there won't be a desktop version as well and that is just not likely to happen. Having Mail/Calendar/Address book as MobileMe web apps obviously didn't mean Apple stopped developing and shipping these programs as basic applications for all Macintosh, iPhone and iPod computers. Instead, the web Apps become an extension of those programs found on the computer, not a replacement for them.

The internet is not ubiquitous, available, reliable or as fast as having these applications sitting on your desktop.
 
I choose death...

This is impossibly horrible news. I use pages and keynote on a regular basis, pages nearly every day. I use it as a cheap alternative to other desktop publishing applications. So if I'm making a poster or sign and using full resolution stock images how is that going to work on my 6mb down 512kb up internet connection? I can understand a word processor application being online only, but with the layout part they added in Pages 08 this does not make any sense.
I hope this rumor turns out to be false.
 
Kar98 said:
According to the rumor site, that means the future versions of Numbers, Pages and Keynote will be entirely browser based.

...and the only supported browser will be Safari 4, which will only be available for Snow Leopard.

Why was I hating on Microsoft again?
Click to expand...

I never heard anything about Safari 4 only being for Snow Leopard, do you have a reference for this?
 
Building a web-based companion to iWork makes perfect sense, as it would allow Apple to extend the iPhone/iPod touch interface to include applications which you might not want to have resident on your device due to space, processing power and other overhead limitations. If anyone hopes that Apple will release their own conceptualization of the "net book" (as something better than a puny laptop), then web-basing applications is a virtual necessity. I doubt very much that this would spell the end of a conventional version of the iWork applications. Why would anyone assume this?
 
Yes. This just can't be completely accurate. I *always* look forward to iWork updates because I use it so much.

If it *is* entirely web-based, I'll be using iWork 08 for a long, long time to come. But again, I just can't see this as being accurate. People are right - we're probably just talking about a web-extension of the apps.

Another reason it would foolish is that not everybody is a MobileMe subscriber - or wants to be.
 
I was expecting something like this to make Mobile Me a more compelling purchase. It seemed to be begging for something like this from day one. Hopefully there will still be offline apps too.
 
MasterNile said:
I never heard anything about Safari 4 only being for Snow Leopard, do you have a reference for this?
Click to expand...

Safari 4 was in testing for Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard/Windows XP-Vista. I don't have a clue about the current status of Safari 4 but they might introduce it at MacWorld. It is very stable and they could use the "Save as application function" that is currently part of Safari 4 to get Pages, KeyNote and Numbers to work as real apps. System requirement for the apps will go up a little I guess. I also wonder how QuickTime export/import in KeyNote is going to work. They might drop it.
 
kcroy said:
Does that mean I cannot work on Pages, Numbers, etc. without having an internet connection????

How in the world would that work with Keynote?

I cannot imagine the suite being entirely web-based that just doesn't make sense. (Airplanes, poor signals, subway, ...so many places people work with their applications without signals.)
Click to expand...


I believe Safari 4 (and maybe even the latest version) allows for web applications to sit in a new browser database while you are not connected. When you reconnect everything syncs.

Apple is developing Safari to run web apps as a local cached copy when not online and then link when the connection is established.
 
Kar98 said:
According to the rumor site, that means the future versions of Numbers, Pages and Keynote will be entirely browser based.

...and the only supported browser will be Safari 4, which will only be available for Snow Leopard.

Why was I hating on Microsoft again?
Click to expand...

Safari 4 will be for Leopard as well. Just like Safari 3 is also on Tiger.
 
This could work if it's a companion app to the desktop. I would have to give up iWork (...well Keynote really) if it were to be completely online.
 
This is a great idea. I'm all for it. Just as long as they keep selling the regular offline version and the web-based one is free. This looks to be more geared towards use on the iPhone.
 
I think Apple is smart enough to know that iWork apps wouldn't work without an internet connection, but it would be nice if they could make something to take it offline.

On the good side, if Apple created a cloud version of iWork, there's now Keynote, Numbers, and Pages for PCs.
 
This can't happen. By which I mean "nooooooo" in slow motion, plus it simply won't work. Keynote as a browser based app? Come on - it's a bit more complicated than a word processor! And has anyone tried using Google's version of a WP? Fun to work on things with other people, but that's the limit. Hopeless as an alternative. Plus what everyone else says about off-line, internetless moments etc etc. It won't happen.

PS Happy New Year to one and all
 
Argh. If it's an on-line suite, it'll almost certainly tie in to MobileMe - so instead of a low priced office set of apps, it's going to cost us $100 a year to use. Plus, as others have mentioned, there are occasions when I don't have internet access and still need to get at a word processor doc or spreadsheet.

I've been trying to be Microsoft free, but this would push me back to MS Office.

Hopefully this rumor - if there's any truth to it - just means Apple is thinking along the lines of Microsoft and adding an online component to its office suite.
 
If Apple's moving to webapps, they should at least start by building a stable web browser. Safari crashes too often to my liking.
 
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