iWork : Apple Competes with Google Docs

Apple today introduced iWork ’09, the latest version of Apple’s popular office productivity suite, which adds powerful new features without sacrificing Apple’s legendary ease of use. The web-based app will apparently be tightly integrated with the OS-bound iWork app, and let you easily share documents with contacts who can add notes and make edits, again, much like Google Docs, albeit in an environment that closely resembles the standard iWork apps.

Apple also introduced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork ’09 documents online. Using your Apple ID, just click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload your document and invite others to view it online. Viewers can provide comments and notes, and download a copy of your document in iWork, Microsoft Office or PDF formats. A consolidated online list of all your shared documents indicates when your viewers have posted comments.

The beta will be free to those interested in trying it out, the final product will eventually be a pay service, though there’s no word on a price just yet.

Apple iWork