Office suites for iOS are few and far between, but the iPad has always fared rather better than its smaller screened counterparts. Now, after months of anticipation and speculation, Apple has released a series of iWork apps for iPod and iPhone. Rather than being made available as a single package, Pages, Numbers and Keynote are available individually, each priced at $9.99.

Updating each of the apps to version 1.4 has seen them all transformed into universal apps meaning that they are compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod. Pages takes care of word processing, Numbers handles spreadsheets, and Keynote is used for presentations. Although buying the full suite of apps will set you back almost $30 – and this is more than other comparable office suites in the app store – the fact that these are now universal apps means that you can enjoy using them on more than one device.

Making the move from a Mac monitor to the slightly smaller iPad screen was not too difficult a transition for the iWork app, but the diminutive screens of the iPod and iPhone are an entirely different ball game. In word processors, spreadsheets and presentation tools, there is generally a lot of information to display along with a wide range of editing and formatting tools. Despite the challenge, Apple has made excellent use of the available space and has produced three surprisingly usable apps.

Existing users will welcome the addition of the option to create folders to help organize files, and a new Smart Zoom feature makes it easier to see what you are working on. While the apps are impressive, things are not perfect. Lack of support for third party cloud storage services such as Dropbox means that transferring files between iOS and a Mac or PC can be a chore. Although no one is likely to be using any of the apps for extended periods of time on an iPhone osr iPod’s small screen, the fact that landscape typing is not available in Pages is something of an oversight.

You can find out more about each of the apps by paying a visit to their review pages: Pages for iOS, Numbers for iOS and Keynote for iOS.