Apple has apparently discontinued the $30 rebate program that it operated for consumers who puchased MobileMe or iWork at the same time as a new Mac or iOS device as in the case of MobileMe, or a new Mac in the case of iWork. The new policy was revealed in an Apple internal memo sent to 9to5Mac which detailed changes that become effective yesterday (April 18, 2011).
The change immediately prompts rumors that Apple is planning on releasing updated version of both MobileMe and iWork ’11, something that has been speculated on for a while. MobileMe is rumored to be receiving a complete overhaul with users gaining access to a music locker, which could act as a cloud-based holding area for purchases from iTunes. The price tag for this service is rumored to be around $20 annually. In addition, other reports have suggested that Apple would be making changes to the pricing tiers in order to remain competitive with services like GMail and DropBox. The new service would apparently have more free options.
The new version of iWork, expected to be iWork ’11, is long overdue for a release as the last version, iWork ’09 was released in January 2009. Many reports have given indications over the past six months that Apple would be revealing an updated version but nothing has yet appeared. Only last week, an iWork ’11 book was delayed for the third time. Given the new features in the latest version of the Mac operating system, OS X 10.7 Lion we expect that iWork ’11 will be released around the same time, potentially at the WWDC in June, on the Mac App Store.
You Won’t Want Money Back If You