No more Macworld

[Kaido]

Apple announces 2009 will be its last Macworld Expo

 

[alfa147x]

 

[ViRGE]

Worse yet, Lord Jobs won't be presenting the keynote! This is blasphemy!

 

[bearxor]

You'd think if it was the last one that Jobs would be giving the keynote. This is clearly the beginning of the end for Jobs, IMHO.

 

[Megatomic]

The end of a fun era. I always enjoyed Jobs' Macworld Expo keynote, even when I didn't have a Mac of my own.

 

[GhettoFob]

I thought that Macworld would go on next year (possibly) since Macworld isn't really Apple's event. It just means that Apple won't be there.

 

[timswim78]

Seems like every company is cutting jobs these days...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: timswim78
Seems like every company is cutting jobs these days...

:laugh:

 

[secretanchitman]

im sure they'll still have their yearly ipod and macbook keynotes, and im sure random small ones for the imacs too.

 

[bearxor]

Originally posted by: timswim78
Seems like every company is cutting jobs these days...

www.instantrimshot.com

 

[sourceninja]

This is going to hurt the stock and fuel rumors he's sick and dying.

 

[Kmax82]

I would hope it would bolster their stock, since it shows that they're being frugal with their assets and not just spending spending spending, like there isn't a recession. I have a feeling that isn't what's going to happen with their stock, though.

 

[ViRGE]

Apple has 12 billion dollars in the bank and another 13 billion in short-term investments that could be sold for cash in a heartbeat; I don't think anyone is particularly concerned with their spending. If anything, they're very shortly going to end up in Microsoft's position and be forced to spend that cash just to get rid of it (once MS hit 37bil, investors wanted them to get rid of it).

 

[Kmax82]

Yea.. but their reasoning (not being constrained to a Jan release schedule) is very valid IMO. In reality, most people go to MacWorld to see what the next big thing is for Apple, but they also go for all the 3rd party information as well. So I still think MacWorld will be a compelling event.. maybe not as compelling considering that Apple won't be releasing products there now, but we'll see.

I do understand that they have a lot of money to throw around right now, but I don't think that going to an Expo is a great way for them to use it. I'd love to see them use it to bring cheaper computers to people. Of course, Apple won't ever do that, but we can all dream, right?

 

[ivan2]

I bet Steve is getting even leaner.

 

[zacharace]

This is a bad move IMO. Being a Mac user, I look forward to MacWorld--and Jobs's keynote--with glee and excitement every year. It feels like Apple has taken away Christmas, for lack of a better analogy.
I also don't agree with the business side of the decision. Apple says that "big trade shows" are "irrelevant," which is arguable at best. CES, ComicCon...I'd venture to say that industry trade shows are very much alive.

 

[Kmax82]

They are but look at how much press Apple gets from "any" keynote that they do. They did the iPhone App announcement from Cupertino and it was huge.. and I'm sure it cost them very little to host that. I will miss it because of the fact that it was fun to speculate and fun to watch, but from a financial perspective, I can understand why any company would want to ditch huge shows like MacWorld, CES, NAB, etc..

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: zacharace
This is a bad move IMO. Being a Mac user, I look forward to MacWorld--and Jobs's keynote--with glee and excitement every year. It feels like Apple has taken away Christmas, for lack of a better analogy.
I also don't agree with the business side of the decision. Apple says that "big trade shows" are "irrelevant," which is arguable at best. CES, ComicCon...I'd venture to say that industry trade shows are very much alive.

Well, you have to consider the rest of their statement to figure on what they are actually saying.

They are really just saying that trade shows are irrelevant to THEM... one of the big reasons they are backing out is because the media hypes speculation on what will be shown... then when they turn out to be false rumors Apple looks like the bad guy. For Apple to have to rush out a product to demo at macworld or blow the cover on some project in development just to keep wowing people on someone else's time line it's not the strategic marketing they want.

Apple has their own personal events for the same reason and because of these, yeah, it's irrelevant for them to have a presence here.

Other shows don't necessarily have this opportunity... you never see Marvel hosting a party for a big announcement or anything so ComicCon is relevant.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: zacharace
This is a bad move IMO. Being a Mac user, I look forward to MacWorld--and Jobs's keynote--with glee and excitement every year. It feels like Apple has taken away Christmas, for lack of a better analogy.
I also don't agree with the business side of the decision. Apple says that "big trade shows" are "irrelevant," which is arguable at best. CES, ComicCon...I'd venture to say that industry trade shows are very much alive.

Well, you have to consider the rest of their statement to figure on what they are actually saying.

They are really just saying that trade shows are irrelevant to THEM... one of the big reasons they are backing out is because the media hypes speculation on what will be shown... then when they turn out to be false rumors Apple looks like the bad guy. For Apple to have to rush out a product to demo at macworld or blow the cover on some project in development just to keep wowing people on someone else's time line it's not the strategic marketing they want.

Apple has their own personal events for the same reason and because of these, yeah, it's irrelevant for them to have a presence here.

Other shows don't necessarily have this opportunity... you never see Marvel hosting a party for a big announcement or anything so ComicCon is relevant.

what he said. This is basically apple being a victim of it's own success. They've inadvertently creating extremely high expectations every 6 months or so. How can a company really keep this up?

The past few keynotes have been pretty much bleh. Nothing unexpected. The rumor mills have become more accurate (sorta), and then hype is getting out of control.

I support their decision in this case.

 

[bearxor]

Ditching NAB is a mistake, IMO. I can understand ditching it last year since FCS2 is so long in the tooth, and they'll probably miss it next year, but NAB is the type of show Apple should have a presence at. Even if it's a booth with no huge product announcements, just a projector and a big screen and a guy that gets up on stage and says 'Hey, look at the awesome things you can do with our stuff!'

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: bearxor
Ditching NAB is a mistake, IMO. I can understand ditching it last year since FCS2 is so long in the tooth, and they'll probably miss it next year, but NAB is the type of show Apple should have a presence at. Even if it's a booth with no huge product announcements, just a projector and a big screen and a guy that gets up on stage and says 'Hey, look at the awesome things you can do with our stuff!'

Yeah, but if they don't have anything ready for the show, it's nothing new, and a black mark on them. But at the same token, having a small presence would make sense just to stay in the community and hear them out.

Hopefully all this scaling back will mean a reintroduction of something smaller, not a complete lack of presence. But this is Apple, they want control over everything...