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A lot of people will find this a far better value offering than paying Apple for its Apps + iCloud on the side.

It was my first thought upon reading this.

Apple isn't charging for its Office-adjacent apps. They are just charging for specific AI-enabled features, specifically "a new Content Hub provides access to high-quality photos and graphics, and there are new premium templates and themes". Outside of that everything existing remains free for Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
 
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Apple isn't charging for its Office-adjacent apps. They are just charging for specific AI-enabled features, specifically "a new Content Hub provides access to high-quality photos and graphics, and there are new premium templates and themes". Outside of that everything existing remains free for Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
If you seriously think that the free versions aren’t going away then I have a bridge to sell you.
 
Well, I hate it. Especially the iWork app (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) receiving no new features without the subscription. They want to monetize their AI push, and even the apps that have always COME FREE with the OS as part of a value package of buying a Mac over a PC (where a fully functioning MS Office does not come for free with Windows) are being hit with this. Before you say "but it's only for the AI features, if you don't want that, it's still free!", I say how long will that last? Do we really think Apple is going to forever maintain 2 versions of the apps as the AI gets embedded deeper and deeper into the apps? (and for the record, I want zero AI features in these apps) I have to assume this is a sign that in the long run even the basic iWork apps will not only not be free (even for basic usage), but not buyable at all, and will only be available by subscription, along with the larger titles like FCP and Logi eventually going subscription only as well.

I don't say this in a vacuum, as I've recently seen many software titles going from purchased license, to subscription with a license purchase option, to subscription only, in every area, from image processing/editing app, audio apps of all kinds, utilities, network tools, publishing, just everywhere. I hate everything about the coming "everything is a subscription, you own nothing" software world.
 
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Well, I hate it. Especially the iWork app (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) receiving no features without the subscription. They want to monetize their AI push, and even the apps that have always COME FREE with the OS as part of a value package of buying a Mac over a PC (where a fully functioning MS Office does not come for free with Windows) are being hit with this. I have to assume this is a sign that in the long run even the basic iWork apps will not only not be free (even for basic usage), but not buyable at all, and will only be available by subscription. I hate everything about the coming "everything is a subscription, you own nothing" software world.

I agree. You took the words right out of my fingers as I was typing a reply to @ugahairydawgs
 
A subscription model for AI features makes sense when the AI is being run in the cloud and there is a need to pay for that compute.

Requiring payment for AI services that runs locally makes no sense, then it's strictly paying for development of the features, which until now has been financed by the initial one-time purchase.

Tim Cook is now joining all the other CEO's out there in wanting an increased, predictable revenue stream.

Yes, some revenue would make sense to support ongoing development, but look at Adobe's annual profit for the past five years, they are raking in the money, not just merely supporting development.

Similarly one can look at Apple's profit, especially for the 'services' branch where the subscriptions are... and the App Store.

It's about the Benjamins.

Is this why AI features have been mostly missing from FCP? Until Apple could put together a subscription to charge for them?

-R
 
That new Logic Pro icon is hideous. Not looking forward to that demented pizza dish on my Dock. Bundling all of this software shows how out of touch  is with their customers. Hopefully this is Tim’s last innovation.
 
Should be getting this included in an Apple One subscription. But, meanwhile in Ohio….
Coming soon: Apple One Pro and Apple One Pro Max.

Apple One is one subscription for everything. Apple One Pro will be everything and more. And Apple One Pro Max will…just cost more
 
I thought pages, keynote, and numbers were still going to be free? That's what was so nice about apple vs Microsoft. I hated having to pay for word. One more thing to bundle into my Apple one I guess. Apple needs that money bad I guess. Tough times.
They are free - try reading the article before commenting.
 
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Tip for those who are about to ditch Logic Pro - try Reaper. Fully featured, highly optimized DAW, runs on a potato (natively on OS X Leopard (!) and further, also Win and Linux), fast, efficient, highly customizable with custom skins and scripts. One time license is $60, and yet you can re-evaluate it indefinitely.
I’m not sure anyone is ditching LPX over this. It’s the one pro app not affected as a standalone app and access to the new features. At least for now…
 
I have most of those Apps already. I do not like subscriptions so I will keep what I have. Recently I have shut down Adobe after 35 years of Photoshop because of subscriptions. Been on FCP since FCPX. Went to Pixelmator after leaving Photoshop.
 
It's so incredibly sad how they shot themselves in the foot so badly with FCP X (I'm sure you know the story, I won't reiterate it here) and basically ceded the entire pro industry to Premiere and Avid, and they've never recovered much marketshare since.
And Devinci Resolve.
 
It's becoming pretty obvious that AI is expensive. $13/month is no joke! And it doesn't look like Apple is willing to eat the cost. And honestly, I'm fine with that. I have ZERO interest in the AI features, so not getting the subscription is no big deal for me. I use Numbers the most, and they aren't taking features away, so again, I'm just fine with this.
Completely agree. Absolutely fine with paywalling the AI features and other clip art libs that I will never use. Let those who want those features pay for them. You couldn’t pay me to use AI.
 
Consider buying a redone pre-owned Mac that will run Sequoia. It's not perfect, but at some point the improvements in computing power of new versions are largely academic and a "wow" thing. Just how fast do you need to run these applications anyway? Yeah, if you're a professional who needs to render 3D shapes or do exotic modeling, 50 or even 10 percent faster makes a difference in productivity. But, for most uses and folks, not so much. If you're retired, productivity is kind of an illusion anyway.

A couple years back, I bought an iMac with an Intel processor long after Apple stopped making them. It was a factory refurb, which I finally learned meant that it probably was never sold and got put into a warehouse to be sold in a brown box instead of a white one. The manufacturing date was the last week of Intel iMac manufacture. The company I bought it from customized it by installing a snazzy SSD and 32 Gb of memory. A great deal overall. Anyway, even when running some of the engineering simulation programs I fool with since retiring, it's hard to tell much perceived difference between that i7 computer and a year old Mac Studio that I normally use for everything else.

You don't always gain that much real performance gain by buying the equivalent of a Ferrari for trips to the grocery store.
Thanks for the detailed reply. And I definitely agree with your last sentence.

I currently have a refurbished (by Apple) M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB solid state hard drive. This is my first-ever Mac and it's perfectly adequate for my current needs though sometimes a little laggy (programs take many finger-drumming seconds longer to launch than on my old PC; Word slows to a crawl when dealing with very big files and it seems to be getting worse; etc.).

My reasons for upgrading are two-fold. First, I'm preparing for my (late) retirement in a couple of years and would like to upgrade to a system that can see me through the rest of my life while I can easily afford it. Second, as part of those preparations, I'm about to switch to a much smaller home office and desk and space will be at a premium. Also, I'm totally fed up with the M1 Mini's lack of ports on the front, another glaring example of Apple's tendency to favour form over function.
 
I see no issue with this. Don't want to sub? Then don't. Just don't expect new features for free and keep on using the app(s) as you normally have.

You want the new & shiny? Then pay up accordingly.
 
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