iWork, iPhoto, and iMovie Free with New iOS Devices
Along with the major announcements of the iPhone 5c and 5s during last week’s special event, Apple CEO Tim Cook threw in a brief bit of self-congratulatory praise for the company’s iWork suite for iOS — Pages, Keynote, and Numbers — along with the iOS versions of iPhoto and iMovie. And then
he raised the bar significantly for competing apps by announcing that all five would be free for purchasers of new iOS devices from now on, with the option to download appearing during the initial device setup.
Oddly, GarageBand for iOS was not included in the announcement, even though the iLife suite of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand is bundled with all new Macs.
Given that the iWork apps each cost $9.99 and iPhoto and iMovie are $4.99 each, Apple just added nearly $40 worth of software to every new iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch sold, a non-trivial bonus for relatively inexpensive devices. Presumably, those who currently own iOS devices but don’t yet own these apps must still buy them.
Since the announcement was focused entirely on iOS and iOS devices, it wasn’t surprising that Apple failed to say anything about iWork for the Mac, which has seen no significant updates for nearly five years while Apple focused on bringing the suite to iOS. Perhaps iWork for Mac will get some attention at the forthcoming release of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, although we’ve already happily switched from Pages to Nisus Writer Pro for Take Control.
For an event concentrating on iOS devices, another "fail" was the lack of a Retina iPad Mini. Also nothing about the other iOS devices: iPods and Apple TV.
This wasn't a general iOS event today. It was an iPhone event. More events are certain to come in the weeks ahead.
iOS 7 and the free apps were discussed today because both are part of the new iPhone roll-out; the new iPhones require iOS 7 and these iPhones are the first of the new iOS devices to get the newly free apps.
Cook has said repeatedly that lots of new stuff is coming out this quarter. Today's event was just the first episode in the series.
When Tim announced this, he said these 5 would be free "and some additional ones" -- any idea what he's alluding to?
At 19:40 in the keynote he says they'll be offered and downloaded automatically along with some additional ones. Maybe it's freebies like iBooks & Podcasts?
I thought it's free on the iPhone 5? And as long as you update your system to iOS 7. And when i checked the App Store, these Apps were still very pricey! :(
I was excited to download it for free. But when i checked it. You still have to buy the apps! Really disappointed!
You thought wrong 8-) As per the article, free on new iPhones/iPads.