Apple on Monday pushed out a new email ad blitz focusing on the iPad's prowess in productivity, highlighting both first-party apps like Pages, Numbers and Keynote alongside Microsoft's Office for iPad.
Titled "Achieve big things," Apple's mailer pushes back against Microsoft's increasingly aggressive Surface Pro 3 campaign, which casts the Redmond, Wash. company's "tablet and a laptop" as true productivity tool.
Apple takes a different tack with its most recent ad, noting that the iPad is not a replacement for its MacBook lineup, but instead a portable hardware solution powered by powerful apps. Specifically, the ad says the App Store's titles "are designed to take advantage of the things only iPad can do."
Of the apps selected to highlight iPad's at-work acumen, Apple chose its own iWork suite, noting Pages, Numbers and Keynote come free with new tablet purchases. In addition to onboard creation and editing features, the apps connect with iCloud to take documents cross-platform, allowing users to start a project on iPad and finish on a Mac.
Along with iWork, Apple threw a spotlight on Microsoft Office for iPad, which debuted in March as a trio of "freemium" app offerings connected to the Office 365 subscription service. Anticipated for years, the collective Office for iPad app suite -- Word, Excel and Powerpoint -- quickly rocketed up the charts, netting 27 million downloads after 46 days of availability.
Apple has been pushing the productivity side of iOS as of late and most recently kicked off a limited time sale on 20 popular productivity, business and utility apps.