When I saw iWork for iCloud in the WWDC keynote presentation I thought it was mere filler material. It is not. It was a shot across the bow aimed at both Microsoft and Google. Apple isn?t ceding the cloud to anyone. After all, name a cloud service that has more users and customers than iCloud.
Office suite apps in the cloud changes the field once dominated by Microsoft Office. It?s level. Think of iWork for iCloud as simply having your Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps in a browser window. Safari, of course, but also Google?s Chrome, and Microsoft Internet Explorer (but not Firefox or Opera).
The difference between iWork for iCloud and the now scrubbed iWork.com is simple. The latter didn?t do much that was worthwhile to anyone and the former is a document creation and management machine in a browser.
The much overlooked feature demonstrated at WWDC was iWork for iCloud opening and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
That?s a big deal because much of the business world and academia are tethered to Microsoft Office. As usual, Apple is playing catchup with services. Office is online already, and Google?s document efforts have always been online.
One thing that I find interesting is the answer to this question. Where?s the money trail?
Both Google and Microsoft?s online apps are free (for now), so what does Apple gain by investing in iWork for iCloud?
It levels what was once a very uneven playing field for document creation and management. If Office users are enticed to move to Microsoft?s cloud and it?s free, why not look at Apple?s iWork because it runs on Windows PCs, Macs, as well as iPhone and iPad. I think Apple is reacting in defense here, making it obvious that Microsoft could benefit from Office for iOS, but users benefit while Microsoft plays catchup in the mobile arena.
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