Why hasn’t Apple released a major update of its productivity suite since 2009? Meh. Microsoft has updated Office twice since then and essentially no one noticed. Nevertheless, iWork 2013 seems to be on the way and we “know” this because Apple has been hiring to get the job done.
Back in February, Apple posted a number of iWork related job openings. Three months later, Cupertino’s is still at and is seeking people to work on its Pages + Keynote + Numbers productivity suite with an interesting twist.
AppleBitch reports that Apple’s seeking a software QA (quality assurance) that will all punch a card at the company’s Santa Clara Valley facility.
As you can see in the above screen cap, Apple seems to be refocussing its iWork hiring on quality assurance engineers, which could be indicative of an upcoming release, i.e. iWork 2013.
Perhaps WWDC 2013 will be the venue for an introduction? With Apple expected to demo OS X 10.9 at this year’s developer conclave in early June, it’s not unreasonable to believe iWork will get some stage time from Tim Cook, Phil Schiller et al.
Pundits, analysts and rumorologists also believe Apple will introduce if not ship new MacBooks and, knock on wood, a pro Mac desktop. Lots of Mac hardware and software at WWDC? That would be more than nice.
Assuming iWork 2013 is just around the corner, what new features and services do you think/hope Apple will include in their upcoming desktop, mobile and web productivity suite update?
Sound off in the comments below…