iWorks from Apple now available to Windows users at no cost through iCloud

Well it had to happen eventually right?

We have seen Microsoft throw open the cross platform doors for their apps and services and now we have Apple making their cloud editing tools, iWorks, available to everyone – including those of us on Windows devices!

According to Zack Whittaker over at ZD Net this offer is actually open to anyone with an Apple ID. That includes those of us who do not own any Apple products because we can all go to Apple’s website and create an Apple ID.

Apple’s iWorks programs include Pages (documents), Numbers (spreadsheets) and Keynote (presentations).

This process works just like it does on OneDrive. You log in and can then create and edit documents you have in cloud storage using your web browser as the interface. The big difference between Apples’s offering for iCloud and that of Microsoft’s OneDrive, besides the programs themselves, is iCloud only offers users 5GB of free storage compared to OneDrive’s 15GB of no cost storage.

Once you have your Apple ID just sign into the iCloud Beta site. If you are already using iCloud or an iDevice then you will likely not get prompted to upgrade your account to iCloud Drive. For all of us Windows based users then you must go through the upgrade process.

Once that is done you will arrive at the main iCloud interface screen – much of which is not functional unless you have an iDevice of some type registered.

In the bottom row you will see the icons for Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

Here are the opening screens for each of them.

Pages

Numbers

Keynote

All is not perfect though in this offering because I received this warning when I opened up Keynote in IE:

At least access to these programs might be seen as progress.

Now maybe we can get an updated version of Safari for Windows!

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.