Apple's iWork free on all new iOS devices
The tech world tuned in to today's round of Apple announcements, which mainly focused on the introduction of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.
However, In today's keynote, the iPad and iPhone maker also mentioned an interesting nugget which is more likely to benefit its consumer base as a whole -- the scrapping of download fees for the iWork application suite.
"We think that iWork is a really key advantage for our customers' productivity, and iPhoto and iMovie are great for their creativity. Almost all of our customers want these apps."
The iWork suite includes Pages and Numbers -- the iOS equivalent of Microsoft's Word and Excel -- iMovie, Keynote and iPhoto. This set of applications covers most of the basic functions today's users often need on a computer. While the average $5 - $10 price tag per application is cheap in comparison to Microsoft's Office suite, for example, the Cupertino, Calif-. firm are willing to scrap the cost.
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Removing the application donwload fees may also tempt more consumers away from rival services such as Google Drive, and could be a way for the company to upsell more space within the cloud storage service, iCloud, in the future.
Apple announced a split within the iPhone 5 line today, revealing two new products -- the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5c is a lower cost device -- although still expensive in relation to rival models currently on the market -- and is expected to be targeted towards developing economies. With a contract, the 16GB variant is priced $99, whereas the 32GB model comes in at $199. However, off-contract, consumers will pay over $500.
In comparison, the iPhone 5s comes in champagne-gold, silver, and black colored versions with storage options of 16GB, 32GB and 64G -- costing $199, $299 and $399 respectively on two-year contracts. The iPhone 5s is a 64-bit mobile phone, equipped with fingerprint recognition technology and an improved camera and battery life.