Could Apple Release iWork ’12 Alongside OS X Mountain Lion On July 25th?

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iwork

Apple’s iWork suite hasn’t been updated since January 2009. To put that in perspective, when the last major version of iWork came out, OS X Leopard was still the most recent version of Apple’s operating system, and Snow Leopard was still eight months away from being announced: OS X Lion and Mountain Lion weren’t even glimmers on the horizon then. The most current iPhone was the iPhone 3G, and the iPad was still a year from being released.

It’s obvious, then, that the iWork suite is way past due for an update. It’s possible, though, that we could see iWork ’12 hit as soon as the end of July, dropping alongside OS X Mountain Lion.

This theory comes via Applebitch.com, and while it’s all speculation, it makes sense.

Essentially, the argument is that, right now, in every iWork app, clicking the share button on a document sends your document, spreadsheet or presentation to the iWork.com beta site. The only problem? Apple is shutting down the iWork.com beta site at the end of the month, so if Apple doesn’t update the app to at least give it iCloud compatibility, the iWork suite’s share functionality will be broken for millions of users.

Apple could, of course, just send out a point release update giving iWork ’09 iCloud integration, but couldn’t there be another possibility? After all, it’s widely believed that Apple will officially release OS X Mountain Lion on July 25th, one day after the company’s quarterly earnings call. This is the same timing Apple used to release OS X Lion last year. Wouldn’t the release of OS X Mountain Lion also be the perfect opportunity to drop a totally new version of the iWork suite?

At the very least, iWork should get an iCloud update before the end of the month. Could it be more than that, though? iWork has gone an awful long time without an update, but it seems weird that Apple wouldn’t showcase an entirely new version of their office suite on stage at an event. What do you think?

Source: AppleBitch

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