All good things must apparently come to an end, and Apple has laid the trial versions of iWork and Aperture to rest. The trial version of iWork ’09 (the most recent version) is no longer available on the Apple website, and users are now redirected to buy the full versions of the iWork apps on the Mac App Store instead. Macstories points out that users are greeted with “The trial version of iWork is no longer supported. But you can easily purchase Keynote, Pages, and Numbers from the Mac App Store to start creating beautiful presentations, documents, and spreadsheets today” when trying to grab trial versions. The full versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers are all $19.99 apiece.
You’ll also notice that the trial for Aperture has gone the way of the G4 Cube as well, and users seeking it are greeted with “The trial version of Aperture is no longer available. If you currently have a copy of the Aperture 3 Trial installed on your Mac, you must delete it from your Applications folder before downloading Aperture 3 from the Mac App Store.” Aperture is $79.99 at the Mac App Store.
It follows a certain logic (though it may not please those who want to try before they buy): Apple has been channeling people to the Mac App Store to get software and, as has been touted all over the Internet for quite some time now, the Mac App Store does not offer trials, betas or other unfinished software. It would be weird if Apple was the sole exception to its own rule, though some people are dubious of the rule’s merit in the first place.
Source: Macstories
