Apple Goes Free, My Thoughts

When Apple released their OS X Mavericks release last week, they also announced that things were changing with Pricing.  First they released this version of the Operating System itself for Free (previously a $20 upgrade), they then followed this up by releasing the Apps which make up iLife (Garageband, iMovie and iPhoto) and iWork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) as Free upgrades for existing customers and bundled Free Apps for new Mac owners.

Many have seen this as a shot at both Microsoft and Google, who at least with Office suites, offer options to the Customers (Google’s free Google Docs option and Microsoft’s Subscription based Office 365 option).  But as I pointed out on my personal Google Plus account, the changing to a Free system makes sense due to Apple’s own iCloud service.

Months ago, during their WWDC (World Wide Developer’s Conference) Apple announced “iWork for iCloud” which brought the Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps accessible to anyone who had access to Apple’s iCloud service (a standard accessible option for anyone who owns either a Mac Desktop / Laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad device, and can be accessed even on Windows machines via the icloud.com website) 

When you figure, based off numbers reported in this CNET article, Apple has over 400 Million devices in the wild that runs the iOS operating system (iPhones, iPod touch and iPad), and every one of those owners have access to iWork via the iWork in the Cloud access option, the ability to actually sell these Apps to consumers have been diminished , after all, would you pay $60 for access to iWork on a Mac, plus an additional $30 to access the same programs on your iOS device, totalling $90 combined, when you can access the same tools as part of your basic iCloud account for Free? I know I for one would not, and I suspect I would not be alone on that detail. Going free was really the wise move on Apple’s part