At Apple’s product announcement this week in Cupertino Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company’s iWork office application suite would be free with iOS 7. This would be like Microsoft giving Microsoft Office away with Windows and there’s only one conclusion that can be drawn: Given slumping PC sales and ridiculous growth in the iPad market Microsoft’s sales are going to be hugely impacted.

The logic is simple: iOS devices are easier to manage for not only for consumers but for IT organizations as well and they are cheaper in terms of overall cost of ownership. In short, when as a typical non-power user you can pretty much do everything on an iPad you did on Windows and it’s an easier and cheaper package to deal with why would you replace your Windows PC with another Windows PC?

I predict that iWork becoming free on iOS 7 is going to have a huge impact on the market and it’s going to be a huge loss to Microsoft and it’s Office market, a huge dent in PC sales, and an enormous gain for Apple and the iPad.

Via: networkworld