Apple Removes iWork, Aperture Trials From Its Website

The trial version of iWork ‘09, Apple’s productivity suite that includes Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, is no longer available on the company’s website for download. The company has replaced the former iWork trial webpage with a message informing customers that iWork is available on the Mac App Store.

The trial version of iWork is no longer supported. But you can easily purchase Keynote, Pages, and Numbers from the Mac App Store to start creating beautiful presentations, documents, and spreadsheets today.

On the Mac App Store, the iWork apps are available as standalone purchases priced at $19.99 each. The iWork trial webpage is still available on some international Apple.com websites, such as the Italian one, although we are hearing reports that the download returns an error, reloading the webpage and displaying the same message about the Mac App Store. The iWork trial briefly disappeared last year, but came back shortly after. In March, Apple also announced the beta of iWork.com (which iWork ‘09 supported) will be discontinued in July.

Similarly, the company has removed the trial of Aperture 3 from its website, with users on Apple Support Communities noticing the change at least more than two weeks ago (recent Apple support documents still instruct users on how to remove the Aperture trial). Aperture is available on the Mac App Store at $79.99.

The trial version of Aperture is no longer available. If you currently have a copy of the Aperture 3 Trial installed on your Mac, you must delete it from your Applications folder before downloading Aperture 3 from the Mac App Store.

The removal of trials from Apple.com shouldn’t come as a surprise. The company has been gradually shifting all its software releases to the App Store, including major releases of OS X and Final Cut Pro. In July 2011, Apple also shut down the Mac OS X Downloads webpage, redirecting customers to the Mac App Store. Apple, however, still has a trial of Final Cut Pro (which is sold at $299.99 on the Mac App Store) available on its website, suggesting that more expensive software may still receive support for trials in the future.

Apple has been rumored for over a year to be on the verge of releasing a new version of iWork, although such rumors never materialized in a finished product with substantial new features. Apple released compatibility updates to introduce Lion support and bug fixes, but avoided implementing direct iCloud integration back in October, requiring users to manually upload and download documents to sync through iCloud.com. According to more recent speculation, Apple may release an updated version of iWork with Mountain Lion, which is on track to become available sometime this summer. [Thanks, Luca]