Apple on Tuesday announced that its iWork productivity apps, Keynote, Pages and Numbers, are now available for iPhone and iPod touch, as well as iPad. Created for the Mac and then completely redesigned for iOS, Keynote, Pages and Numbers allow you to create and share stunning presentations, beautifully formatted documents and powerful spreadsheets on the go. iWork apps are available on the App Store for $9.99 each to new users and as a free update for existing iWork for iPad customers.

Pages is Apple's Microsoft Word equivalent; Keynote is the Powerpoint equivalent; and Numbers is the Excel equivalent.

"Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch."

According to Apple, the iWork apps import and export documents from iWork for Mac and Microsoft Office and print wirelessly using AirPrint. Apple also provided these details:

* Keynote makes it easy to create impressive presentations, complete with animated charts and transitions. You can play your presentation in Full Screen view on the stunning, high-resolution Retina display or connect to a projector or HDTV for a large audience. Available separately, the Keynote Remote app allows your iPhone or iPod touch to control a Keynote presentation on any iOS device or Mac.

* Pages is the most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device and has everything you need to create amazing documents. Pages takes full advantage of the high-resolution Retina display on iPhone 4 and iPod touch so you can see all the detail and richness of your documents. To make working with text easy on iPhone and iPod touch, Smart Zoom automatically zooms in to follow the cursor while you're editing and zooms back out when you're done.

* Numbers uses Multi-Touch gestures and an intelligent keyboard to help you create compelling, great-looking spreadsheets with over 250 easy-to-use functions, flexible tables and eye-catching charts. Just like Pages, Numbers takes advantage of the high-resolution Retina display and Smart Zoom to make working with text and cells on iPhone 4 or iPod touch easy.
Keynote, Pages and Numbers are universal apps that run on iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation). Keynote, Pages and Numbers are available from the App Store for $9.99 (US) each for new users, or as a free update for existing iWork for iPad customers. Keynote Remote is sold separately via the App Store for 99 cents (US).

Apple designs Macs personal computers, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Problems remain

Robert Dutt, writing in a blog post at PCWorld, lauded iWork for the iPhone for its "feature-set and ease-of-use" and the "best applications" with which to edit business documents on the iPhone. However, he raised a number of issues. He said that the iPhone is simply not a device for writing long-form documents. With the on-screen keyboard taking too much space is already frustrating for the bigger iPad, it's "throw-the-damned-thing-out-the-window frustrating," for the iPhone. He added iWork comes in at the more expensive end of the smartphone apps suite, with each of its three applications coming in at $9.99. Quickoffice Pro costs only $9.99 for all three apps -- word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents -- for the iPhone, and another $14.99 for the iPad. Competitor Documents to Go offers support for all three types of documents on both the iPad and the iPhone at a $16.99 price point.

Eric Zeman, writing for Information Week, commented on the functionality of the three productivity applications. He said the apps "do indeed work." He added that business users on the move could easily perform basic document editing and share those documents. However, he said that for the security-minded, however, "there are unanswered questions."