[hurtle]

The fuss and uproar over Apple not attending Macworld is overblown. I guess it's understandable to an extent, because the journos and the better known bloggers attend the event, so for them this news is a let down. But for the vast majority of us, it's really no biggie, I won't be able to catch SJ's keynote online as I normally do, but doubtless there will be special press events to launch new products etc. These big events all seem a little anachronistic nowadays.
The sky is not falling people, Apple will continue to prosper and grow into the future

[jldinsdale]

But the point is that this is not about Apple - Apple & Job are the protagonist if you hadn't noticed - but to MWSF, a 25-year old institution in the young era of the micro computer. You've never been to an Expo, and that's a real shame - despite the news articles, the blog posts, the Macworld articles, nothing beats the hype of being there, in the flesh, surrounded by THOUSANDS of fellow enthusiasts who share the same passion as you. No matter how high-quality the Apple QT feed of the event is, NOTHING beats the feeling of being there first hand, meeting people, trying out products, etc etc etc.

And THAT is what's going away, to most of our chagrin.

[charlieevett]

I think this is a very bad move for Apple. I think totally controlled press events in the future will come off as less authentic and slowly erode Apple's credibility and fan base.
For all of its faults, the MacWorld stage provided a great platform for Steve to connect with the Apple faithful. It knit together a community of people and sustained them from year to year.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

[maclia]

I still hope we get to play keynote bingo!!!!
The announcement was a shock, but it probably was the right thing. Never say never...

[macFanDave]

Apple is handling this event very poorly. I'm in the minority of those who buy Apple's explanation of Jobs' absence from MacWorld, and Apple's imminent departure from the event going forward.

Wall Street is certainly not buying it. AAPL stock is getting beaten up in a panic stampede!

Apple needs to either prove that Steve Jobs is in good health and publicly declare why they are quitting MacWorld, or provide the roadmap of Apple's leadership in case any of the executives is unable to carry out his or her duties.

I could fix Apple's PR problems with three words:

BRING BACK WOZ!

Not as CEO, but let the "other" Steve invent his own position in the company he co-founded. Woz' presence would give the impression of continuity at Apple, especially if Jobs is fading away.

[distortedloop]

Less than 3 years as a Mac user (have had iPods since they first came out, though); it had been my hope to someday actually see a Steve Jobs keynote live; just to experience the RDF first hand. Realistically, I'd have never gotten in, but I could always think it was a possibility at Macworld.
Since Apple "special events" are pretty much invite only to major press and media reporters, those of us in the unwashed masses category can pretty much count on never having an opportunity to see Jobs live and direct.
Disappointing, but I'll survive.

[HottDogg]

I also think (and this goes under Apple's desired control over what is rolled out when) -- that they are also tired of people having ANY reason to hold off buying anything they have to sell. As a professional, I have learned to wait until after Jan's MW show to even think about getting a new desktop rig because time and again, January has been THE TIME for the Mac Pro revamp. Now with "any day can be ANYTHING can happen day", I think Apple will be taking the educated-guess work away and people will buy when they need instead of waiting and then perhaps not buying.

[hillstones]

macFanDave said:

Apple is handling this event very poorly. I'm in the minority of those who buy Apple's explanation of Jobs' absence from MacWorld, and Apple's imminent departure from the event going forward.

Wall Street is certainly not buying it. AAPL stock is getting beaten up in a panic stampede!

Apple needs to either prove that Steve Jobs is in good health and publicly declare why they are quitting MacWorld, or provide the roadmap of Apple's leadership in case any of the executives is unable to carry out his or her duties.

I could fix Apple's PR problems with three words:

BRING BACK WOZ!

Not as CEO, but let the "other" Steve invent his own position in the company he co-founded. Woz' presence would give the impression of continuity at Apple, especially if Jobs is fading away.

Have you not been paying attention? Steve himself already declared his health at the last product announcement. They are quitting Macworld because they don't need to waste money at trade shows. They publicly announced that. Apple has dropped out of all the other shows because there is no point to attending one. Did you link on the article references regarding the past Keynotes at New York? Their big announcement was .Mac and iCal, and the crowd thought it sucked. Why would Apple want that press?

Jason made a great point in the article. When Apple is at Macworld, they completely overshadow everyone else there, and their enormous booth is nothing more than an Apple Store. I bet the other vendors really feel special when everyone is at the Apple booth instead of their booth. The other Mac developers at Macworld would probably do better without Apple's dominating presence. Also, with the economy, Adobe and Belkin decided it wasn't cost effective to attend. Apple is not the only major player backing out. Trade shows are a dying breed. I went to the LA car show last year and it sucked. Every car there had been in production for years. There were no cool new cars to look at.

Apple does a much better job with their own product announcements and they get just as much press coverage. Apple has nothing to announce. The keynote will be boring. Steve likes to do big product announcements, he is not going to waste time trying to sell an updated Mac Mini, which is a dying product that should be killed off. That is the big rumor for Macworld, announcing a refresh of the Mini. What a waste.

That was the other major problem with the Macworld Keynotes. As Jason said in the article, they were not timed towards Apple's product announcements. So they would annouce cool new hardware at Macworld, and then say, we plan to ship this product in MARCH! Wow, that's exciting. When Apple does their own product announcements, the products are immediately available.

On another site, one reader stated that he went to last year's Macworld and said it SUCKED because IDG did such a horrible job with the handling of the trade show and he waited in long lines for hours just to see the keynote. He said it wasn't even worth it because of the way IDG handled it. So I am guessing you have never been to one.

So this is a good thing. Apple shouldn't overshadow other vendors at a trade show. This is their chance to get their product noticed.

[cgessner]

As a long-time MacWorld participant when it was in Boston and NYC, I can tell you that this should not come as a surprise. Bad economy, the death of trade shows in general, and the fact that Apple now has retail stores all come into play. Surprised? no. Disappointed? Yes.
The fact is Apple will now control their own timeline for product releases even more than what they do now without the cloud of an Expo hanging over them trying to meet user expecations every time. As mentioned in the article, the big loser is 3rd party vendors. And to those of you who make third party products, I say this: you better hope the Expo continues -- because consumers are not going to be able to get honest answers about your products by just going online, or reading about them in a trade magazine. People like the buzz of trying new products and getting answers to their questions. Don't believe me? Over the years when I attended various Expo's, products from Belkin, Iomega, Griffin, etc... were always HOT BOOTHS at these shows. And when the faithful left the Expo, they delivered the mantra from MacWorld to the masses. My question: how will that happen now if MWSF goes the same way as Boston?

[chefmitch]

Yeah, good luck with that. I hope you enjoy your time with Vista.

Seriously, if Apple is no longer offering you the best computing experience then you should go where the grass is greener. If you think Vista will give you that better computing experience then more power to you.

Don't let the door hit you in the a.





[quote name='farlander']
My personal opinion: Apple got cocky. It's been fairly cocky for awhile now, actually, but it looks like they've reached the point where they no longer care about anybody.

I've tried to work with Apple as a business awhile ago, and was met with INCREDIBLE arrogance. I've cancelled all my plans on using Apple servers in our company because of that arrogance. I've cancelled all plans on switching our users to Macs. We currently are 99.999% Dell company, and we could have been a 99.999% Apple company.

On the other hand, the quality of Apple products has been diminishing year after year. Leopard is the buggiest version of Mac OS X ever. Every single hardware product they release requires recalls and numerous fixes, because NOT A SINGLE PRODUCT works the way it is expected to work out of the box.

Quite honestly, I'm myself considering switching to something different. Perhaps I'll switch back to where I came from to the Macs: Unix (OpenSolaris is a pretty nice system nowadays, for example). Or, as funny as it might be, even Vista.

[chefmitch]

I love the fact that Apple conducts business and doesn't kowtow to the idiots on Wall Street. The stock price of a company will follow it's earnings over the long haul - short term it is all BS. Short term stock fluctuation has nothing to do with the value of a company and everything with gamblers.

I say this as a shareholder. I don't care what happens day to day and week to week, I care about Apple focusing on the big picture. Execution, not games, is what wins in the long run.

Woz, seriously? Woz is a great guy, an engineering legend but what does that have to do with running a business?

[quote name='macFanDave']
Apple is handling this event very poorly. I'm in the minority of those who buy Apple's explanation of Jobs' absence from MacWorld, and Apple's imminent departure from the event going forward.

Wall Street is certainly not buying it. AAPL stock is getting beaten up in a panic stampede!

Apple needs to either prove that Steve Jobs is in good health and publicly declare why they are quitting MacWorld, or provide the roadmap of Apple's leadership in case any of the executives is unable to carry out his or her duties.

I could fix Apple's PR problems with three words:

BRING BACK WOZ!

Not as CEO, but let the "other" Steve invent his own position in the company he co-founded. Woz' presence would give the impression of continuity at Apple, especially if Jobs is fading away.

[macFanDave]

chefmitch said:

Quote

Woz, seriously? Woz is a great guy, an engineering legend but what does that have to do with running a business?

That's why I wrote that he should invent his own position in the company. I have heard him speak and it is obvious that he is ultimately an engineer. Maybe he could come back and mentor engineers or get involved in an up-and-coming product. I believe he left Apple in the first place since he was getting too many management issues put on him that took him away from the tech stuff he loves. I just feel that Woz wandering the halls of 1 Infinite Loop would provide a psychological boost that could lift some of us out of this funk.

I wasn't suggesting that he should run the company, but don't underestimate the power of symbols like mascots.

[palane]

Hilltoons - The Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy, because of an overleveraged buyout last year. The Chicago Tribune is profitable as are the Cubs. Your analysis of IDG's financials is similarly suspect.



BB

[hilltoons]

Palane -- Perhaps you should re-read what I wrote...and look into the Tribune Company's history, too. I never said that the Chicago Tribune was not profitable, just their "other holdings" were casung problems. Yes, their buy-out had a great deal to do with their bankruptcy.

But their other holdings, (The Baltimore Sun and Los Angeles Times were losing millions -- over a long period), caused them to be in a position for the buyout. Your analysis is over-simplistic and does not view the past 10-15 years of Tribune's financial problems.