12/16/2008, 5:25pm, EST
Tuesday, December 16th
Last year for Apple at Macworld Expo, no Jobs keynote
Apple today announced that it will no longer exhibit at the Macworld Expo after the January 2009 event. Not only is the company pulling its presence from the show floor, but also from the keynote address. Many of the attendees that paid nearly $2000 for keynote priority seating may be disappointed to find out that Steve Jobs will not be giving the final keynote address. The senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Philip Schiller, will speak to the crowd instead.
The company explained the decision as a shift in marketing strategy that puts less importance on trade shows. Direct interaction with millions of customers will be provided by the Apple Stores, including the brick-and-mortar establishments and Apple.com. The computer-maker has not exhibited at several other shows in the past few years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.
The event appears to be struggling to fill floor space for the 2009 expo. Adobe was one of the first large companies to announce that it will not establish a booth this year. Belkin also plans to pull out and put more money into private product announcements. The overall registrations are down 20 percent and many companies, such as Google, will reduce their booth sizes.
Filed under: industry, Apple
Other story tags: keynote, Macworld, Macworld Expo
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uh-oh
Let the "Steve is deathly ill" hysterics start!
And them pulling was long in coming. I'm surprised it lasted this long.
Wait!
And are they serious? There were people who paid $2000 just to get good seating at the Keynote?
Wow, if you're willing to spend that kind of money for an RDF fix, what will they pay to meet the man in person?
Doh!
The end of an era. Good thing I decided not to go.
It's still too bad...
Regardless of the different ways and means Apple has to reach their customers today, this show was a real hallmark that kicked lots of discussion and promotion off for Apple.
Whether it was in forums, or in other media forms I think it accomplished quite a bit for them.
It's too bad, would have loved to have seen a live Keynote at some point. I'd be ticked if I spent that kind of money only to find out Steve wasn't speaking....
Sad
What a sad announcement. I've attended every year for 20 years and will definitely miss the opportunity to interact with the employees who create the products I use every day. I found this to be a very valuable networking, training, and learning opportunity.
timing?
I guess it was just too hard for them to come up with the next really big thing in time for every January Macworld Expo?
Slow death . . .
Macworld has been dying a slow death for several years now. Lately, half of the booths were skins or holders for iPods and iPhones. The quality of the training went downhill fast, as most of the higher-level mac users opted to start going to WWDC where the training was better and there was more interaction with Apple engineering employees (not just the marketing types). It is a sad day, as I'm sure this will mark the end of Macworld.
In house?
With recent, random product announcements, who thinks we'll see Apple make their own announcement hall on their growing campus?
One upside for Apple not attending MW: They can announce new products where and when they want to, so they're not under the gun to pull something out every year, or rush a product for presentation when it really needs a few more months.
What do you think to the ad-riddled Macworld mag now?
wow am i bummed
i never got to go to mac world and now i never will. Shoot and doggone. Rats and fie. Drat and kaboogie. Foo and Bar.
No more mac Mecca
I'll miss my chance to go to Mac Mecca now. Bummer.