Under what cases will I get iWork or iLife?

Question

After looking at various models of Macs and looking at Apple's iLife and iWork pages, I'm more confused than where I started.

Originally, I thought that nothing - just Lion - came with a new Mac. But then I saw something here that says that iLife is a part of every new Mac.

So I thought. But then I saw this that said that iLife is not a part of Lion. Huh? Then, to add to my confusion, I saw this, that said that iWork does not come with a new Mac. Hmm. So after doing some research, I've arrived at these conclusions:

• Apple really needs a central place to see what comes with a new Mac and what doesn't.
• iWork is seperate from iLife, but both can be bought from the Mac App Store.
• iLife comes with Lion.
• Nothing comes with iOS.
• I'm really confused.

So: Under what cases would I get iWork or iLife?

[example answer] You get iWork if you buy XYZ and iLife if you buy ABC. Both come on the Mac Pro, and none are on the iPad by default; however you can get iOS versions through the App Store for $41.34 each. You can buy them for $700 each on the MAS. The MacBook Air comes with iLife but not iWork; so does the MacBook Pro.

Answer 1

Every new Mac (MBP, iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook Air, Mac Pro) purchased from Apple comes preinstalled with

• the latest version of Mac OS X
• the latest version of iLife
• no iWork

Every new iDevice has:

• the latest version of iOS
• no iWork
• no iLife

Every new copy of Lion has:

• Lion
• no iWork
• no iLife

Answer 2

I think perhaps OP is confused about what & why, and the answers above were lacking in detail although accurate.

Maybe this will help?

When you buy a new Mac, it will come with the current OS, and a free copy of iLife.

If you upgrade your OS at a later date, you're only buying the OS, so when iLife is updated you would need to buy that separately.

Mac apps and iOS apps are different, but they do have counterparts, such as the iWork apps. These are individual purchases on iOS, and not included with anything for free.

iWork isn't free with anything, and since the Mac app store, it's just the individual apps rather than the full suite, as is the case on the iOS app store.