Final Draft just released Final Draft Writer, a full-fledged screenwriting word processor for the iPad. Michael Grothaus writes for TUAW:

Final Draft Writer isn’t going to replace Final Draft for OS X, just like no word processor for iOS will ever replace desktop word processors for professional writers that deal with manuscripts that are hundreds of pages long. But what Final Draft Writer does do is give screenwriters the ability to work on their scripts any time and any where that they are away from their computers.

I’m sure if I had the gumption I could reach my hand into the Internet and pull up a few “professional writers that deal with manuscripts that are hundreds of pages long” who have moved to an all (or mostly) iOS workflow, but I’ll spare you.

Final Draft Writer is on sale for $29.99 until September 30th, so you should probably go get it1 before then.

I’m surprised by the price. Even at $49.99, seems low by Final Draft’s standards which worries me. Do they view this only as a “mobile” solution, not a burgeoning computing market? In other words, is the “it isn’t going to replace Final Draft for OS X” just Grothaus shooting from the hip, or is it the way Final Draft wants public perception of the app? I write on my iPad all the time, I don’t even think about it as a stop-gap anymore; it’s just another computer. Apps that fall short of accepting that credo tend to be ones that have little value for me.

That said, Final Draft Writer looks like it has potential to be a great collaboration and annotation tool for the industry standard FDX format. Like most things Final Draft, I’ll bet it becomes a great producers tool, with popularity among writers coming second. I haven’t downloaded it yet and I doubt I will. If I need to do any screenwriting on the go I use Fountain, which has a growing list of supported apps last time I checked.