Buyers of the latest version of Apple's rising productivity suite -- iWork '09 -- no longer need to type in a serial number when installing from a CD, posted Monday.

That allows owners of the boxed, retail version of iWork '09 to install the software on as many Macs as they want. They can apparently even share the software, which costs $79 for a single user version ($49 if bought at same time as a new Mac), with family, friends and co-workers with no repercussions.

Apple earlier this month. The software was lightly refreshed, with new cloud features being the highlight.

First released in January 2005, iWork has made steady inroads against Microsoft Corp.'s Office for the Mac.

As of mid-2007, among North American consumers, according to the By last year, however, Mac Office's lead over iWork had slipped to just a two to one margin.