If MobileMe and iWork were murder mysteries, you could say that the plot just thickened, as it were. An Apple source has revealed that the company is ending rebate programs for both applications, leading to speculation that refreshes are on the way.

9to5Mac is reporting that Apple has sent out an internal memo “announcing the end of Apple’s long-running rebate program for both the MobileMe service” as well as the iWork productivity suite. According to their source and the image seen here, the promotions have effectively ended as of the close of business on Monday, April 18.

You may recall that Apple has historically offered a $30 rebate on MobileMe when purchased at the same time as a new Mac or iOS device, with iWork getting the same treatment with a new Mac purchase. The company eliminated retail boxed copies of MobileMe back in February, and has skipped a number of opportunities to offer an updated Mac version of iWork, most notably at the debut of the Mac App Store in January.

So what’s going on? No one knows for sure, but MobileMe has been rumored to get a major refresh as early as this month, presumably with an iTunes cloud-based “music locker” service and other bits recently seen in patents, such as Media Stream and Find My Friends. While it’s unknown how much Apple may hold back for iOS 5, the removal of boxed copies and now the end of the $30 rebate could indeed point to the long-rumored free MobileMe service at long last.

Meanwhile, iWork is sure to remain a paid app, and most likely will make its debut on the Mac App Store as separate purchases for Pages, Numbers and Keynote in the same manner that much of iLife ’11 did in January. The last new version of iWork was released in early 2009, so a new edition is anticipated this year for sure -- the question is, when?

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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)