Don't be fooled. This is not a truly new version of the iWork suite. Although it continues the strengths of iWork 2008, especially in Keynote, Apple has not addressed many of the weaknesses that prevent iWork from being a serious office suite suitable for business. For iWork 2008 users who can spare $79 to upgrade to iWork 2009, the investment is marginally worth it. If you want to save your money and skip this upgrade, you will not miss much.

All three applications deliver some improvements in terms of functionality, integration, and ease of use. Some of the improvements will be pleasant surprises, but I haven't found any breakthrough "must have" new features.

Pages and Numbers continue to be disappointing. Apple has not addressed some very basic weaknesses that prevent the two otherwise attractive applications from replacing Microsoft Office in most businesses that, like mine, produce a lot of documents and spreadsheets.

Global strengths:

Although Numbers and Pages do not have the functionality of Excel and Word, they are easier to learn and easier to use. As an experienced user of both suites, I find that I can create a document much faster in the iWork suite than using Microsoft Office.

On my basic MacBook, at least, the iWork applications run noticeably faster.

Global weaknesses:

The Help function remains vague for all three applications. The search function is inaccurate and the information, if you find it, is very basic.

iWork 09 file formats are not compatible with iWork 08. For organizations that use iWork 08, this is a significant disincentive to upgrade.

Files tend to be much larger than those produced by their counterparts in Microsoft Office.

iWork does not have an export or import capability for Open Document files. Currently more users worldwide use OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice, the two leading open source office suites for Mac, than iWork.

Pages:

Despite its shortcomings, Pages is easy to use. The user has a greater sense of "control" over what is happening on the screen than is sometimes the case with Word, especially with format changes. Formatting is much easier than with Word.

Pages continues to lack, however, several basic functions. I am sure that there are other shortcomings that annoy other users, but here is my list.

- You still cannot change paper size or orientation within a document. Instead, you must break the document into separate files.

- File sizes tend to be larger than in .doc format.

- Pages still lacks an auto-recover capability.

- The search and replace functions are still very primitive.

- Spell checking remains unreliable.

- You still cannot change text orientation in tables.

Numbers

I remain puzzled by Apple's apparent refusal to invest the relatively slight effort needed to make this application better than Excel. The tables-based structure of Numbers makes it much easier to use than Excel. It produces better looking spreadsheets. However, there are at least two weaknesses that keep it from being the first choice for individuals and businesses who need spreadsheets that not only look pretty but also do "industrial strength" data analysis.

- Numbers cannot link a cell in one spreadsheet file to a cell in another spreadsheet file.

- The charting function is very inflexible and primitive.

Keynote

Keynote remains vastly superior to Powerpoint. It is worth the $79 price just to have this application

Bottom line: I am disappointed that Apple would charge $79 for a version that introduces marginal improvements and leaves so many basic flaws unaddressed. I have to give iWork 09 a positive review, but there still are some curious weaknesses that prevent the suite from reaching its full potential.