Apple announces its final year at Macworld Expo

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Apple announces its final year at Macworld Expo

Apple today unexpectedly announced that this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, scheduled for January 5-9, 2009, in San Francisco, will be the company’s last. For the first time since 1997, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will not be giving a keynote presentation to open the show; instead, Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening address. In the release announcing the change, the company states: “Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways. Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.”

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Comments

1

All I can say is, WOW!

Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on December 16, 2008 at 1:56 PM (PST)

2

2nd that-Shocking is a word that came to mind as well.

Guess Macworld 2009 is likely to be the last one.

Posted by Enigmafan420 on December 16, 2008 at 1:59 PM (PST)

3

@Enigmafan420: If you read the Apple’s PR, Macworld 2009 *is* Apple’s last ever. No more Macworld for Apple.

Posted by w00master on December 16, 2008 at 2:28 PM (PST)

4

#3,

I believe #2 was referring not to Apple’s participation, but to the future of the show itself.

Posted by Charles Starrett on December 16, 2008 at 2:42 PM (PST)

5

Wow. Macworld without Apple is like a pop-tart without a toaster. It’s still manageable, but not quite as good. Now Macworld with Phil Schiller instead of Steve Jobs- that’s like a pop-tart without the filling; pointless. Phil is good, but he lacks the panache of Steve.

Posted by Josh on December 16, 2008 at 7:55 PM (PST)

6

I got introduced to the apple at macworld when the last few years and I always looked forward to it. It’s disapointed, an i liked jobs actl. .... woow, a sad thing here guys

Posted by dennis on December 17, 2008 at 4:47 AM (PST)

7

This stinks. I always looked forward to macworld. The first thing that came to my mind with Phil doing it this year is Steve’s health.

Posted by Ryan on December 17, 2008 at 4:58 AM (PST)

8

So now we’ll hear Phil say “... oh, and one less thing ...”

Posted by mwilgar on December 17, 2008 at 7:00 AM (PST)

9

Well I guess we can assume that no new products will be unveiled. Steve wouldn’t allow anyone else to do a keynote to introduce new products unless there wasn’t any products to be unveiled! All I can say is the keynote will probably be boring and very uneventful.

Posted by tchezinho on December 17, 2008 at 7:59 AM (PST)

10

There will be new products. It has, after all, been a very long time since the iPod shuffle was updated.

Posted by Jeremy Horwitz in East Amherst, NY, USA on December 17, 2008 at 8:49 AM (PST)

11

Had to happen, after the death of Comdex.

Posted by otaku on December 17, 2008 at 12:24 PM (PST)

12

Let’s hope for a 250G iPod. Finally.

Posted by Robert on December 26, 2008 at 3:14 AM (PST)

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