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Apple Makes iMovie, GarageBand, and iWork Apps for Mac and iOS Free for All Users (macrumors.com)

Posted by msmash on from the free-stuff dept.

Apple today updated several of its Mac and iOS apps, making them available for all Mac and iOS users for free. From a report: iMovie, Numbers, Keynote, Pages, and GarageBand for both Mac and iOS devices have been updated and are now listed in the App Store for free. Previously, all of these apps were provided for free to customers who purchased a new Mac or iOS device, but now that purchase is not required to get the software. Many Apple customers were already likely eligible to download the software at no cost if they had made a device purchase in the last few years.

12 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Still Don't Get It by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    >> all of these apps were provided for free to customers who purchased a new Mac or iOS device

    I still don't get it. What else would you run these apps on if not a Mac or iOS device? (To me, they've always been free so...what changed?)

    1. Re:Still Don't Get It by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you have a device bought before 2013 you had to pay for the apps. Now you can get them for free.

    2. Re:Still Don't Get It by Jimbookis · · Score: 2

      I always though it was ridiculous too. Turns out if you use some kind of profile management system to control a swag of iPads at a school for example then if you wanted to push out these iWork apps you'd have to purchase a copy for each device (because setting up management usually means wiping the iPads clean) ! This is nuts considering each device already had an entitlement for these programs out of the box - I never understood why Apple wanted to double dip this way apart from the benefits of double dipping for them.

    3. Re:Still Don't Get It by Schnapple · · Score: 5, Informative

      is Device limited to mobile phone & purchasing apps? Because we sure as hell have 'Devices' in the house older than 2013 that came with those titles for free. On desktops & laptops. That's why OP's original question is still valid.

      Do you mean the mobile apps are now finally free too? (know yer history son).

      There's a few different things going on here with regards to the Mac versions.

      Versions of iWork prior to 2011 were traditional boxed commercial products - as in, you went to the store and bought a disc. The Mac App Store had been introduced in 2010 and in 2011 Apple released iWork '09, the then most recent version, on the Mac App Store as three separate apps at $19.99 a piece (which meant that the three together were cheaper than the $79 they had been charging for the iWork DVD-ROM).

      In October 2013 they released new versions of all three, now just called "iWork" with no particular year or version designation, and now exclusively on the Mac App Store. They also made this version a free upgrade for iWork '09 users both to reward existing owners but also because this allowed them to transition to using the Mac App Store as their central software update platform. At this time, however, they were still three $19.99 applications.

      The way the free upgrade worked was that the Mac App Store looked to see if you had iWork '09 installed and if so it would install the newer iWork (leaving the old one intact) and associate your Apple ID account in the Mac App Store as having owned the apps. At the time there was a trick people discovered - by accident or design the Mac App Store was incapable of determining whether or not your copy of iWork '09 was the full version or the 30-day trial, which Apple had rescinded from their website but which was still floating around. If you installed iWork '09's trial and rebooted, the Mac App Store would start installing the new version of iWork and your account would now own the latest iWork even though you had not purchased iWork '09. In a statement, Apple acknowledged that this was possible but that they thought the convenience of upgrading and Mac App Store association was worth the potential loss in sales they might suffer as a result.

      In October 2014 Apple announced that the three iWork apps would be free with new hardware purchases. Prior to this point you had to either qualify for the free iWork '09 upgrade or purchase the apps, and anyone who didn't do the trick above would still need to buy the apps.

      What's changed today is that now the three iWork apps are outright free to everyone, not just people who bought a Mac after 2014 or were willing to perform the iWork '09 trial trick. If you had them on devices prior to 2013 for "free" then either you had taken advantage of some promotion or some bundling, or you may have gotten the upgrade as a result of the 2013 rollout.

      The iOS versions of iWork followed a similar trajectory, though skipping the part about being on DVD prior to 2013 and any upgrade tricks - they were released as three $9.99 apps, free with hardware purchases past 2014, and now just free to anyone.

      --

      Schnapple

  2. Small catch by schklerg · · Score: 4, Funny

    It requires a hardware key to activate which is available with an RS-232 connector. USB-C to RS-232 dongles sold separately.

    --
    Be Excellent To Each Other
    1. Re:Small catch by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

      It requires a hardware key to activate which is available with an RS-232 connector. USB-C to RS-232 dongles sold separately.

      (Playing along with the joke) Unless you have an XServe. It has an RS-232 connector.

  3. Re:New GarageBand ToS by GoRK · · Score: 2

    Can you provide any evidence for what you claim? GarageBand actually has a long history of having a very user-friendly approach to copyright. Some bad actors have made claims against certain GarageBand loops in the past, but they have all been trolls. With the exception of distributing single loops individually, content created with Garageband comes with a worldwide royalty free license and Apple doesn't claim to own or have any rights to user-produced content.

  4. Also allows ownership change by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Something that just happened recently on a system update, was that it asked if I wanted to change ownership of my iMovie license - in the past I had installed iMove under a different user, so I could not update it when logged into the iTunes account I use for Mac apps...

    So that has gotten better as well, probably part of the same change where they don't care if you switch the owner to be a different iCloud user as long as you are running on a Mac.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Re:New GarageBand ToS by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 4, Informative

    Make sure you read the new ToS!

    There is no such thing as a free lunch. Make sure you're not giving Apple rights to all of your creative works by using their "free" apps.

    It's NOT Free. You bought an Apple hardware Product at some point.

  6. Re:"With iCloud built in," by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

    Welcome back to customer lock-in central.

    Funny. I don't participate in any iCloud stuff with any of my Apple gear.

  7. Keynote's pretty slick by SpiceWare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use Keynote to give my Atari 2600 Homebrew presentation. To give the presentation I use both my iPhone and iPad. The iPhone plugs into the projector (after turning on Do Not Disturb, of course!). After launching Keynote on both devices I then use the Keynote Remote option from the iPad to connect to the iPhone (via bluetooth or wifi). The larger screen on the iPad makes it easy to see the slide side-by-side with my presenter notes, plus I'm free to walk around the stage without worrying about tripping over wires. There's also a virtual laser pointer and colored marker set that lets you point out things and draw on the slides during the presentation.

  8. Re:here's the catch by Sir+Holo · · Score: 3, Informative

    I assume the reason for this is Apple makes their money selling storage in the cloud. The more you use those apps, the more storage you need.

    There is no requirement to use anything iCloud to use these Apps. You can, if you wish, though.

    If you do, the price is in line with other cloud services. $2.99.mo. for 200 GB, for example.