An old PR adage says if you have bad news, release it on Friday when it’s less likely to cause a stir. So perhaps that’s why Apple announced it’s killing off iWork.com on, you guessed it, this past Friday.
Apple sent out an email notice to its iWork.com users, informing them to get their documents off the iWork site, and remove any links or embedded documents elsewhere on the Web by July 31. Apparently, it is planning to not only to discontinue support, but also actually remove all the documents users have uploaded.
I nearly missed this message because I’ve got Gmail set up to filter notifications like these. Here’s a case for checking that folder periodically. From the email I received:
[T]he iWork.com public beta service will no longer be available. As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the web. We recommend that you sign in to iWork.com before July 31, 2012, and download all your documents to your computer.
Apple refers its iWork.com users to this support document, which basically just tells you to get your documents before they’re gone.
But the larger issue that occurs to me is that this is a really bad move by Apple. If it wants people to use iCloud, it needs to make them comfortable with cloud storage. The transition from MobileMe to iCloud was bad enough. But deleting all the files off its previous cloud solution is even worse. Not a great way to build confidence that we can count on your new solution, Apple. [Apple]