About two years passed between versions 1.0 and 2.0 of Apple’s challenger to PowerPoint on the Mac platform. It’s now been three years since Keynote 5.0 came out on January 6, 2009. Since then, Keynote has been released for iOS, first for the iPad then for the smaller screens of the iPhone and iPod touch. OS X has been updated twice (Snow Leopard and Lion). Microsoft PowerPoint has received one major update with rumors of an App Store version on the way, and iBooks Author was just released with obvious iWork influences. Through all of this, the entire iWork suite has remained conspicuously untouched, disregarding some minor point releases.
iWork is not Apple’s first attempt to create a productivity suite for their users who want an alternative to Microsoft Office. Prior to iWork there was ClarisWorks, created by Apple subsidiary Claris and rebranded in its later years as AppleWorks. ClarisWorks didn’t have a presentation module until its final version, released in 2000, which was also later ported to run on OS X. From 2000 until it was discontinued in 2007, AppleWorks saw no major updates – only point releases.
Keynote was released in 2003, and many correctly took that as the proverbial writing on the wall for AppleWorks. Pages came out in 2005, and Numbers would come out one year after AppleWork’s official demise. Now, with Keynote having gone three years without any significant updates, some Keynote users are asking if the well-loved software is on its way out.
I don’t think so. Not yet at any rate.
First, when AppleWorks was on its way out, not only did it not receive any new version numbers for seven years, but it also went a couple years without any point updates. Keynote (and the other iWork apps) just recently saw three point releases in 2011 that brought it up to speed with OS X Lion’s new features as well as fixed several bugs, improved Office compatibility, and even added a couple of builds – Anvil and Fall Apart. While iWork may be on the back burner, that doesn’t sound like a product that’s reached the end of its life on the desktop.
Then there’s the support for Keynote files in iBooks Author:
Not only is Keynote supported by the interactive books created by iBooks Author, but Keynote files are the only presentation files accepted by the application. Additionally, iBooks Author is a Mac application, meaning killing the desktop version of Keynote while maintaining the iOS version would hamper this functionality. While iBooks Author may have taken development time away from Keynote, it may breathe new life into sales of Apple’s presentation software.
That said, I do think iWork for Mac OS X will eventually be discontinued in favor of putting full support behind the iOS version, but, by then, chances are that iOS will be Apple’s primary OS with OS X falling into the same category that OS 9 was a decade ago. When we see a MacBook Air or iMac shipping with a touchscreen and a version of iOS (let’s say iOS X for fun) as its primary operating system, then we can start worrying about the future of Keynote on Mac OS X.
Of course I reserve the right to be completely and totally wrong.
