'Overwhelming response' leads to Apple limiting iWork for iCloud.com access
Apple is now limiting access to its iWork for iCloud beta, citing an "overwhelming response" to the iCloud-enabled productivity suite.
The new restrictions on access to the iWork beta appear to stretch across the entire productivity suite, with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers all informing users of the aforementioned "overwhelming response." Users are asked to "check back soon" on when the service might become available for them, and in the meantime, they are still able to store presentations on iCloud.
Apple's notice gives no notice on when the service might become more widely available.
Since rolling out the beta, Apple has been gradually expanding access to the service to users. Shortly after iWork for iCloud's public debut, the company began making it available to some non-developers. In mid-July, Apple opened iWork for iCloud to non-developers, sending out invites to a number of potential participants.
First announced at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference, iWork for iCloud is meant to take apple's productivity suite to another level, offering access not only on Macs, but also on Windows PCs running Google's Chrome browser, Internet Explorer, or Apple's Safari. The suite reproduces most of the functionality of Apple's existing desktop iWork offerings, but with the added portability enabled by being browser-based.
The new restrictions on access to the iWork beta appear to stretch across the entire productivity suite, with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers all informing users of the aforementioned "overwhelming response." Users are asked to "check back soon" on when the service might become available for them, and in the meantime, they are still able to store presentations on iCloud.
Apple's notice gives no notice on when the service might become more widely available.
Since rolling out the beta, Apple has been gradually expanding access to the service to users. Shortly after iWork for iCloud's public debut, the company began making it available to some non-developers. In mid-July, Apple opened iWork for iCloud to non-developers, sending out invites to a number of potential participants.
First announced at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference, iWork for iCloud is meant to take apple's productivity suite to another level, offering access not only on Macs, but also on Windows PCs running Google's Chrome browser, Internet Explorer, or Apple's Safari. The suite reproduces most of the functionality of Apple's existing desktop iWork offerings, but with the added portability enabled by being browser-based.
Comments
edit: sure hope this is not a signal thy can't handle the traffic to their Maps app once 10.9 is released. That one will get hammered way more severely.
Bad News: The iCloud infrastructure can't handle it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Good News: There is a lot of interest!
Bad News: The iCloud infrastructure can't handle it!
yet.
Google has been kicking ass on the cloud since 98. Apple is "young" but is catching up pretty fast.
The new datacenters will be ready. Just wait, watch and enjoy.
I think that Apple had low expectations for iWork on icloud to begin with (seems like they always have low expectations of their productivity suite).
So yes demand outstripped Apple's expectations, but we don't know if that was quantifiably a big number of users. I'm thinking it wasn't.
But seriously, this is great news following mixed excitement and a lot of people claiming in comments that they don't know why they would use iWork in the cloud. I think this is the kind of thing that is honestly a really big deal but will go largely without praise; it's expected infrastructure that will be taken for granted.
Edited for a typo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pedromartins
yet.
Google has been kicking ass on the cloud since 98. Apple is "young" but is catching up pretty fast.
The new datacenters will be ready. Just wait, watch and enjoy.
The implementation currently has a lot of flaws, but the design is already way ahead of what Google is doing. Google can't do design at all really.
Once Apple's is working it will be the preferred service for sure. It's way slicker and easier to use right out of the gate. Google has had years and they still don't have it right.
I really hope that Apple does a lot more work on this before taking off the 'beta' tag. About 1 in 10 documents that I have in the cloud actually open with the beta without any errors. Some say that features in the document will be stripped out, others simply refuse to open.
I have high hopes for iWork in the cloud. I love it for storing iWork documents, although the folder limitation is frustrating. But what I really need is for it to 'JUST WORK' meaning a document created on the mac needs to work on the cloud, on the iPad, on the phone, etc. If there are features on the desktop app that won't work in the cloud, there needs to be a way to put the desktop app in to 'cloud compatibility mode' so that documents created will work as expected when you need them to. Not knowing which features are unsupported makes it a guessing game at best. That makes it a non starter in the business world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Good News: There is a lot of interest!
Bad News: The iCloud infrastructure can't handle it!
The glass is always half empty, right? It's never half full. Can't have any positive thinking can we?
Just stating the facts man... yesterday, I was called a fanboy -- today a troll.
FWIW, Likely I have made more positive posts about Apple to AI forums that your entire post count!
Don't forget informative! And humorous! And insightful!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Good News: There is a lot of interest!
Bad News: The iCloud infrastructure can't handle it!
Or they already have all the feedback they can use at the moment
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Good News: There is a lot of interest!
Bad News: The iCloud infrastructure can't handle it!
Same old same old.
Apple does not do networking well. That's the sad conclusion I've come to, after a couple of decades.
Or just the devs who signed up for it before it went GA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkrupp
The glass is always half empty, right? It's never half full. Can't have any positive thinking can we?
That's funny. being on the forum since 2005, you must have run into Dick's comments. Positive thinking? If you have read his comments you'll realise that even the 'bad news' was excitingly delivered. Dick's been into computers since before I was born and has been an Apple fan forever.