Apple is mixing business with pleasure, and turning them into a great gift for buyers of the company’s new hardware.
Appearing on stage at a special event held at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, CEO Tim Cook announced that the tech giant would start offering customers who purchase new iOS-powered devices a free copy of five apps from the iWork and iLife suites: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, and iMovie.
According to Cook, iOS will automatically present users of brand new iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads with a screen that gives them the opportunity to install the software when they first start up their devices for the first time. Users of current hardware won’t be as lucky, but they will still be able to purchase iWork and iLife apps from the App Store.
The move clearly shows that Apple no longer sees its mobile devices as a way to primarily consume content, but also to create it in a variety of forms; adding a full suite of business and media-management apps to every iOS device is also a great way to offer more value to customers in a way that other vendors—many of which lack Apple’s software-development prowess—will have a hard time matching.
