With the launch of the Creator Studio subscription app offering, Apple may be phasing out the iWork branding it has used since 2005 for Pages, Keynote and Numbers.
Apple removed the iWork section from its website today, and the URL now redirects to a more general “apps” page that includes Creator Studio, Apple Arcade, Apple Invites, Image Playground, and other Apple apps.
The iWork page that Apple removed was dedicated exclusively to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, and included information about each app along with a link. Apple’s Apps page offers some of the same information in a dedicated productivity section, but with additional details about the premium features included in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote with Apple Creator Studio.
The apps page doesn’t mention the iWork brand at all, suggesting that Apple is no longer mentioning the three productivity apps using the term and will instead advertise them as Apple Creator Studio apps.
Apple’s iWork site has now been removedIt’s unclear whether Apple plans to phase out “iWork” entirely, and the term is still used in various support documents and manuals. The all-in-one branding that Apple has used for Pages, Numbers and Keynote for more than 20 years may take some time to be completely removed, or it may still be used in some limited situations.
Apple introduced Keynote as a standalone application in 2003 and added Pages in January 2004. A year later, the two applications were bundled together under the name iWork ’05, with software priced at $79. Apple said iWork was the successor to AppleWorks, an office suite that included a word processing application, a database, a drawing application, and a spreadsheet application. Designed from the ground up, iWork applications were essentially the Mac equivalent of Microsoft Office.
In 2007, iWork ’08 acquired Numbers, and in 2009, iWork ’09 included the online document sharing service iWork.com (defunct in 2012 in favor of iCloud). When iWork ’09 came out, Apple started selling apps for $20 each, and later added them to the Mac App Store when it launched in 2011. iOS versions of iWork came in 2010 with the launch of the first iPad, with Apple charging $9.99 each.
In 2013, Apple redesigned the iWork apps for Mac and iOS and began offering them for free to Mac buyers. Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are free today, though there are now upgraded features available only through an Apple Creator Studio subscription.
Apple Creator Studio is priced at $12.99 per month and includes access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage in addition to iWork. For Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, Apple Creator Studio adds a content hub with free photos, premium templates, and Apple-managed themes. There is also a tool for remixing image creations right in the document and a Super Resolution tool for upscaling images.
In addition to iWork, Apple has been phasing out other “i” brand terms over the past few years. iBooks and iPhoto are now Apple Books and Photos, while iTunes has been split into Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts. Apple still uses the “i” mark for iMovie, iCloud, iPhone, iPad, and iMac.