Apple's Pages app, which is similar to Microsoft's Word, provides ease of use when it comes to using documents on iCloud and transferring documents between mobile iDevices and desktop. However, a recent report suggests that Pages for iOS is still lagging behind the Pages for Mac version.

A recent report from Gigaom indicates that even though Apple has recently updated iWork suite of apps for iOS, some of the improvements are only half way implemented.

The Gigaom report claims that previous versions of Pages for iOS do not show any sort of change tracking, which makes the app useless for users who want track changes on their documents. However, the latest version 1.7 brings change tracking but the feature is poorly implemented, making it almost useless.

Users can review and accept changes to documents on the iOS device but cannot use comments. This is not ideal for reviewers or editors who use this feature on a regular basis.

Editing on the iPhone 5 is slightly better because of the bigger 4-inch screen and users can change margins and have my rows of text on the screen in landscape mode. However, performing detailed tasks is much easier on the iPad or the iPad mini.

iOS version of Pages lags behind OS X version of Pages as the styles still remains partially implemented. Users can choose from a list of styles, but they cannot create their own style. Users cannot update a style if they want the font to be different, but font can be changed manually.

"Tables of contents also remain elusive, which can be a problem if you've made significant edits to a document and need to update the TOC," reported Gigaom.

Users may accept that Apple Pages does not have feature parity with Microsoft Word but the discrepancies of features between the iOS and OS X version may make things difficult for customers, especially as they work on documents from both portable devices and desktop.

"Pages for iOS still lags far behind the OS X version of the app. Since we're clearly past the myth of iPads existing only as consumption devices, and more professionals are eschewing laptops for iPads, I think Apple needs to seriously step up its game with its iOS iWork offerings," Gigaom said.

Do you use Pages on iOS and OS X? What do you think of the app?