Apple seeks techies, designers to revive iWork office suite

Apple looks set to refresh its answer to Microsoft's office: the neglected iWork software suite, which hasn't received a significant update since 2009.

Listings on its jobs page, some of which date back a few months, the fruity firm says it is looking for nine people to help develop the office software collection. Could this be a response to Bill Gates' dig that iPad users were frustrated because they can’t "create documents, they don't have Office there."?

As well as a technical production ninja, which probably isn't as exciting a role as it sounds, Apple is looking for a visual motion designer, production specialist, verification engineer, HiDP image specialist as well as a software engineer and three software quality assurance (QA) engineers.

One QA job advert says: "The iWork team is looking for a software QA engineer to work on the next generation of Desktop, Mobile and Web application/services. This position requires a self-motivated individual with strong problem solving skills who can contribute in a dynamic team environment."

The HiDP Image Specialist position would indicate that Apple is looking to add retina support to its next version of iWork, while the software verification engineer and QA posts could indicate that the next generation of the software suite is getting close to being ready.

The iWork suite contains software including text editing app Pages, spreadsheet app Numbers and presentation program Keynote. Although versions of the programs have received minor tweaks during iOS upgrades, there have been few major changes since 2009. ®