Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software
How much longer will Appleworks live?
I was chatting with Scott earlier today when we began to wonder: Does Apple still bundle Appleworks with new Macs? With the focus being on the iApps these days, you just don't hear about Appleworks anymore. A quick search of Apple.com revealed that the eMac, iBook, Mac mini and iMac do, in fact, ship with Appleworks installed. It can also be purchased as a boxed application. I wonder if Appleworks will eventually fade away, having been replaced by the iLife and iWork suites. Appleworks includes word processing, database creation, painting and speadsheet applications. Pages certainly handles word processing, but the others - database, painting and spreadsheet - are not represented by the iLife or iWork bundles. I'm apt to think Apple would be content to let this functionality die with Appleworks, as they don't really fit into the "digital hub" strategy.
What's your opinion of Applework's eventual fate? Do you use it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
fero said 7:13PM on 8-30-2005
My take is AppleWorks will be around until the next revision of OS X, where iWork 2 will be released along with a spreadsheet app (Numbers?) and database app, replacing it entirely.
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John Resig said 7:18PM on 8-30-2005
See, I wouldn't really consider Pages to be a word processing application - it really is nothing of the sort. It seems to be more of a print-media design application. (Being able to design posters, flyers, newsletters - stuff like that.) It's primary function is definitely not word processing, I can tell you that much, at least. I think Apple would really benefit from a complete Word-like application - or, at least, one that's better then the processor available in Appleworks.
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Scott said 7:24PM on 8-30-2005
I would think that AppleWorks is destined for the file 13 bin sometime soon. Apple is "said" to be working on another application for spreadsheets (numbers) and I would think they'll probably pull some of the AppleWorks wordprocessor into the new iApp Suite (if there is going to be one) on the next revision date. It'll be interesting, but I think with the architecture (chip) switch, I think (purely my own humble opinion) Apple is setting themselves up to position themselves to give Microsoft a run. Hey, it can happen ;)
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Twist said 8:26PM on 8-30-2005
AppleWorks is still alive? Actually I was never aware that it was ever really alive. Most people I know who used it compared it unfavorably to ClarisWorks. Back in the day I used Word Perfect (remember when they had a Mac version?) and then later I gave up and started using MS Word if I ever needed to really word process something (for my own personal word processing tasks I prefer something like iOrganize or MacJournal even). I am not a big spreadsheet user (thank the powers that be) and I wasn't impressed by the other AppleWorks functions so I never really had any use for it.
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Don said 8:27PM on 8-30-2005
I agree with John Resig. I bought Pages and found it to be an inferior word processor to Appleworks, which is not especially impressive.
I was hoping to eliminate MS Word, but I just couldn't do it.
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Penginkun said 8:49PM on 8-30-2005
Pages is miserably slow, too. It's not a word processor, though it can function as one. It's a DTP application, plain and simple. A darned nice one, if as I say, sluggish on older (last year's) hardware.
That said, I can't remember the last time I used Appleworks. I use TextWrangler for writing (it's fast AND it's free! How can you lose?) and then use Mellel for formating.
I never use a spreadsheet either. And I can build better databases using SQL and PHP. Not that I ever DO, because I don't need them for anything, but I can.
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Chris said 9:37PM on 8-30-2005
Personally I think Apple won't come out with any MS Office killer soon. Apple wants to keep MS happy by selling their product. Also having MS Office helps make it easier for people to make the switch from PC to MAC. It's familar to them and it's a newer version than the PC version.
I love Pages but still need MS Office for Excel and Word. :(
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CB said 9:38PM on 8-30-2005
I'm a computer consultant and so help people set up their new Mac's. The past few new Mac's (Powerbooks) have come with iWork installed.
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Paul Dunlop said 10:06PM on 8-30-2005
Well, having worked for an AppleCentre in the UK, I can say that there still seem to be a lot of people that swear by AppleWorks. I know several that consider it better than MS, despite my personal disagreements on that point. Plus you have the issue of a heavily installed user base. It wouldn't make sense to kill it off before a totally viable alternative existed, which, at present, it doesn't.
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Jim McCargar said 10:35PM on 8-30-2005
In the K-12 education world, I think we really need a good, cheap alternative to buying MS Word site licenses for kid-use computers. A wordprocessor is essential! Everywhere from Gr 4 or 5 up, we need a spreadsheet/graphing program, too. Microsoft is just too expensive for many school systems to handle. Appleworks, however, looks weak compared to MS Word and Excel, and has for a long time, even for some pretty basic functions (tried to format a bar graph in Appleworks lately?). Our schoolkids can do presentation stuff now, too, and do so much more frequently than using a draw/paint program.
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Kelly Dumont said 10:48PM on 8-30-2005
When his Steveness introduced iWork. He stated that it was the beginning of the replacement of Appleworks. I would not be surprised to see a new version of iWork in January with the spreadsheet piece. I don't know that they will worry about the database piece.
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nathan said 10:53PM on 8-30-2005
I always found Appleworks to be pretty useful. Apparently I've been using version 6 since 2002, wrote a ton of college papers, and even had to make some spreadsheets. It's pretty reliable for basic stuff. I don't really need it anymore, as I'm out of school and will never have to write a term paper again, but I would have been sad to see it go a couple of years ago.
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Glen Grayson said 12:05AM on 8-31-2005
My office still uses AppleWorks for our WP and SS needs, as part of our architectural practice. But I think that it has been on a slide in features and convenience since ClarisWorks 4.x, which I think was it's zenith...
Apple has the ability to beat Office, but I think they realize that it would be foolish. I am hoping the Office gets simpler and more elegant some day.
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Dan Oblak - MacBigot.com said 12:22AM on 8-31-2005
I have been running with the assumption that schools (at least at the elementary level) are big-time user of AppleWorks; and for myself, I have found it to be extremely valuable for rough drawings until my current employer was able to provide me with a license to Illustrator. This is the deal-killer for me -- if Adobe (or Apple) can provide me with a CHEAP drawing utility that can handle vector images (including EPS... ARE YOU LISTENING, MICROSOFT?), I will easily be enraptured. Adobe has 'Photoshop Elements'; where is 'Illustrator Elements'? Until then, I hope AppleWorks sticks around for us low-budget folks. (BTW, three cheers for GraphicConverter on all most all these counts...)
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ToeKnee said 1:18AM on 8-31-2005
A couple points-- Pages and Keynote do not come included with any Macs as far as I know. 30-day trials do come with many Macs, however, so I think one of the posters above is mistaken.
I am a K-8 computer teacher, and I love Appleworks for kids. My old Windows lab even had Appleworks on every PC for the younger kids, and they enjoyed it right up to this previous year.
The new eMac lab I am installing also comes with Appleworks, so there will be continuity there. I got a lab license for MS Office for the older kids and to appease the concerned parents.
I use Appleworks' database for all my lesson plan tracking (which gets confusing with 2 sections each of K-8 each week), typing speed test result tracking, grading, etc. I have become quite proficient at it and like it a lot. It has tons of advanced features you never find out about until you dig. It's just enough for me, whereas Filemaker would be overkill.
For the sake of schools, I would hope Apple would come out with an updated Appleworks suite soon and not try to replace it with iWork programs. Appleworks was quite perfectly simple and insanely great for us in its day, which has now passed, but is still a mouse throw away.
I also think that Office X and Office 2004 for Mac are the best things Microsoft ever made. We need them to continue for the sake of market share and mindshare.
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Jabber Wonk said 1:48AM on 8-31-2005
Pages is not a word processor? Maybe . . . in the same way that Michelangelo was not a sculptor.
Poo-pooing spreadsheets? Visicalc (particularly, Visicalc running on an Apple ][) was what originally lit the fuse. It's what tipped "microcomputers" from being regarded as gadgets into something that businesses HAD to have.
Apple strayed. Winning the hearts of those with nose rings, it shunned those who control the purse strings.
Oh sure, you could get Microsoft Office for the Mac. Isn't that a thrilling proposition? "Think different (sic)--pay a lot more and you, too, can *almost* be just like everyone else!"
Evidently the corporate world was able to resist the offer.
I know it makes some people squeamish when you say these sorts of things, but it seems to me that business is mostly about making money. Oh yeah, world peace, too. But no matter what, if you don't make money then you don't get to play like you're in business for long.
It follows logically that people in control of the corporate purse strings like to spend their time making plans about how they can make more money. And if you're going to do any serious financial planning, then an able spreadsheet can come in mighty handy.
Sadly, the spreadsheed module of AppleWorks is no worthy challenger for Excel.
I hasten to add that it doesn't suck. Some aspects of it are quite clever and the people that have sweated over it deserve high praise. However, every minute I've spent using the AppleWorks spreadsheet was a minute spent wishing it were better than it is.
Something tells me that His Steveness doesn't use the AppleWorks spreadsheet when he chart's the course for Apple's future.
But just you wait. When and if "Numbers" becomes real--and if it has the same finesse that Pages has--then you'll know that Apple means business. I'm hoping the day is drawing nigh. I'm getting all a-twitter about Apple's prospects.
From my perspective, Apple's elegant software is the *real* customer bait.
At the end of the day it's more about what you get done than how you look doing it. (The advertising industry may be an exception.)
I could do Adobe stuff all day long on my PC. However, Google, Yahoo! and almost every other software maker in the galaxy treat Mac users like the proverbial red-headed step-computer.
(Don't agree? Hey, you try explaining to your daughter that being able to apply a Eye Candy filter a few seconds faster than a Windows computer is a happier circumstance than having to wait six months before she can play a hot sims game. Rather, what *used to be* a hot sims game.)
Is it any wonder that the sheeple didn't want to "think different"?
So why switch? What has the power to make the (huge) throng out there that can't even spell megabite want to "think different"?
Being different may not be so scary if being different means I get the power to do better things. Sure, our vanity makes us want to be more stylish. But what we really hope a computer will do is make us better at what we do. Software is key to doing things better.
"Better" is better than "different".
Bodacious Apple software is what cinched the deal for me. iWork, iLife, Final Cut Pro . . . (more to come?) . . . gave me the ability to do things better with less hassle.
Pages makes it easy for me to produce better proposals. Keynote makes it easy to make better presentations.
When Apple throws down for spreadsheets and databases, then get ready for a market shift. Businesses owners hate virii even worse than slashdotters.
C'mon, Apple. Give us a spreadsheet that the influential financial analysts clamor to use and hit Microsoft where it hurts.
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ToeKnee said 2:42AM on 8-31-2005
regarding:
"Think different (sic)"
That is not incorrect any more than "think pink" or "think thin" are.
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Ruminator said 7:43AM on 8-31-2005
I still use AppleWorks myself...it does everything I need, but I see it going away once iWork is a complete suite of apps (still missing the spreadsheet and database...maybe FileMaker Lite and Numbers?).
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Sayling Low said 11:20AM on 8-31-2005
Jabber Wonk ended with 'C'mon, Apple. Give us a spreadsheet that the influential financial analysts clamor to use and hit Microsoft where it hurts.'
Does anyone remember Claris Resolve, the Apple spreadsheet based on the Wingz engine, which came out round about System 7??
I think Apple did try in the past (to offer an Excel alternative) but were not very successful.
Sayling
(letting his grey hair show...)
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The Jeremy said 12:25PM on 8-31-2005
Just open source it. It really bugs me that companies sit on products with no commercial viability that might find some use if it were opened up. Same goes for WordPerfect. The investor's group that bought up WordPerfect seriously needs to open that baby up and then live off the licensing and support contracts they could sell to the legal firms that still prefer WordPerfect to Word.
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