Apple Seeking Applications Engineer for Cloud-Bound iWork?
While it is not anything new to see Apple job postings, TechCrunch spotted a listing for iWork that stood out from the crowd. It was a year ago that Apple opened up iWork.com to beta testing. It allows the sharing of iWork documents, spreadsheets and presentations with anyone with access to a modern web browser, on a Mac or PC. On December 22nd Apple posted that they are seeking an Applications Engineer for the iWork team and they hint that more than just online sharing might be in store for iWork:
The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.
Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:
- JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
- Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
- Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
- Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects
Reading this job listing one would get the impression Apple is looking to start a venture outside of the current iWork team, perhaps iWork in the cloud.
We haven’t gotten a native iWork app for the iPhone or iPod touch yet. Would an HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript WebApp be a workable alternative? Would you want?
[Via TechCrunch]
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I will take it if it syncs to the cloud or iDisk from my iPhone!
I view this as more related to the cloud version of MS’s Office, and to the iSlablet. If the Tablet has its own OS (or the iPhone OS, or a variant thereof), it has the screen real estate to run an office suite, but not the compatibility to use iWork for OSX. One way of adding apps to such an environment is to scale them up from the iPhone; another is to supply apps for the Tablet that scale down to the iPhone, or that just don’t work for the iPhone; a third way it to host the app online and scale it for both the iPhone and the Tablet. Maybe Apple is planning this third option for iWork, which would make a lot of sense.
In general, MS and Adobe are keen on cloud apps, not because they want to work on a free project that undermines their profit, but because doing so helps assure the use of and continued existence of their file formats and standards. Given that the Tablet won’t be able to use a fully featured iWork, a cloud based version is a good compromise for the Tablet (I’m speculating).
In other words, if Google Docs (and closely related webapps) are the only commonly available free, online office apps, then anyone who wants the advantages of using them (continuous backup and synchronization) will just use Google Docs. And if you’re just using Google Docs, when you’re looking for an office app suite, then you won’t need MS Office or iWork, you’ll just need a text editor, or maybe OpenOffice.
If there is no iWork online for something like a Tablet, then people will use something like Google Docs on the Tablet. And that’s not good for iWork for OSX.
Etc.
iTablet d’hôte. Look it up.
iWork-in-the-Cloud. Now wouldn’t that be suite?
I’ve wanted iWork for iPhone for, well, forever. I would love to have great functionality on my phone. Even tho they would scale it back some it would be a welcome addition.