Apple sweetened the pot a bit on its new productivity suite Tuesday, with a “Try it Free for 30 days” offer on iWork ’09. The enhanced spreadsheet, desktop publishing and presentation software package must not be flying off the shelves since its introduction last week at Macworld.
I was aiming to get around to it at some point because I’ve come to really like Pages, especially since I got used to its decidedly-different-than-Word workflow.
I’m also interested in checking out Numbers, Apple’s spreadsheet software that was not part of the copy of iWork ’06 I’ve been hobbling along with. I hope not to be involved again too soon in any venture that requires a lot of work with spreadsheets, but if Numbers is a reasonably robust solution it will be nice to know it’s in the file system.
Of course – and I hate to keep going on about this – Keynote is, to me, the star of the iWork show, a truly full-featured, sophisticated piece of presentation software that puts Powerpoint to shame. I’m looking forward to playing with its new bells and whistles and this little free teaser may be just the thing to get me off my duff to check it out.
Thanks, Apple!
18 responses to “Apple Offers to Let You Try iWork ’09 Free for 30 Days”
Uh… iWork 08 had the same deal. Probably 07 did too. It’s nothing to do with sales at all. Seriously, what software /can’t/ you try for a month nowdays?
concerning Apple numbers (and pages) 09:
actually they really ARE fantastic. I am currently compiling a business report along with some figures for a sushi restaurant in munich. I am not an excel guy, but i have to include some tables and charts. It really is FUN compared to everything I did with excel before. I am completely switching to iWork 09 right now. I think Apple really did it again, and I think the announcements at this years keynote were maybe not as insignificant as some people thought, when you look closer at the complete iWork & iwork.com package…
greetings, alexander
To echo Joel’s comment, I downloaded the trial of iWork 09 the day after the keynote, so its availability is NOTHING to do with slow sales.
How about a bit of basic fact checking before drawing a conclusion in your posts, Lonnie?
iWork has had a free 30-day for as long as I can remember.
@ all – to the charge of excessive snark in this post, I’ll plead guilty. Apple sent out a special email to Apple ID holders announcing the 30 day trial on iWork and I should have simply reported that fact. It has, however, as I wrote in the post, gotten me off my duff to go ahead and get the software.
Check out the Track Changes feature in the new Pages! Just brilliant, craps all over MS Word’s. Keynote ’08 was already a significant improvement over ’06, so prepare to be impressed by ’09!
Where can you download this from? Can’t see it on the UK apple store.
this is non news. At least in the US. Iwork has been try it for 30 days since the first release.
now what would be news and welcome at that for many would be
“Apple announces that all computers shipping Feb 1st and later will include both Ilife AND iwork”
not that I mind the extra $80, I think it is totally worth it just for Keynote which works better for me than Powerpoint. but I know a lot of folks think it blows that Apple doesn’t just include it with new computers.
double if they make folks pay for this new iwork.com (I suspect that they will have a standalone and a ‘already a mobileme member’ price since they are likely the same cloud, but we shall see)
I HATE IWORKS! I want my appleworks back. I have a MBP and everything I try take hours for me to figure out.
Can anyone help me like this program