iMovie, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iPhoto Free With All New iPads

At today’s Apple keynote address, the company announced that its iWork suite of apps for iPad will be free with all new device purchases.

The iWorks apps, which comprise iMovie, Pages, Numbers, iPhoto and Keynote, are all popular applications in education, and often result in the largest financial outlay for schools after the initial device purchase. iMovie is, in my experience, the most requested iPad app.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said,  “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.”

Whether the applications will come built in to the iPad, like the Calendar and Mail apps, and whether they will need to be associated to an Apple ID, is yet to be announced. But these price changes will be welcomed by any schools already embedded in the Apple Ecosystem or looking to purchase iPads in future.

The free apps are also likely to encourage students and schools considering BYOD to look more favourably on Apple’s tablet.