Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.
MacDailyNews Take: IDG World Expo, the producer of Macworld Conference & Expo, is hating life right about now.
Apple’s press release stated, verbatim:
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.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: The end of a rather remarkable era (excluding Amelio). A moment of silence, please…
Thank you.
Now, judging by recent history, special “media events” and WWDC will suffice quite nicely for product unveilings. We assume Jobs will continue to deliver presentations at such events.
That said, the communal nature (Macworld Expo was Mac users’ Mecca) and workshops for non-devs will be missed; predawn alarms to go line up for hours before Steve Jobs’ keynotes, not so much.
Our condolences to those who bought Macworld Expo tickets mainly in anticipation of a keynote by Steve Jobs and, of course, those who never attended a Jobs Macworld Expo keynote live.
Cue the “Jobs is dying” articles in 3, 2, 1…
Sad, but true. Hit generation rules.
did you here? jobs is already dead, but he forsaw all this and filmed the keynote a few months ago. the rest of the keynote that he wasn’t able to film will be done in 3d by pixar.
RIP stevie, may they keep you frozen with walt disney so that one day in the future they can revive you.
What about WWDC? Will we still see keynote addresses there?
I guess Apple cannot justify spending the millions of dollars in this economy to have Jobs take stage at Macworld… especially when Apple can send out special invites to attend at Cupertino, generate more “buzz” and spend way less money.
Smart on the part of Apple really. RIP Macworld.
The Dude abides.
Meh, I’d look forward to LIVE webcasts from Apple where they will announce killer products.
omg, I’m depressed now…to watch Jobs, was a “to do” on my bucket list.
🙁
They were great.
Since its the last, why not do one last keynote SJ? I wonder if there some bigger deeper underlying issue here.
I hoped I would never see this day…
Expect new Mac Product Releases to be announced from Infinite Loop.
@jubei
you nailed it. i heard in the last fire at apple HQ, the steve job clones were burnt to a crisp. so they are putting steve in deep freeze to save his DNA.
Awww, this sucks so much! I loved when Steve intros something and everyone cheers. I got into Apple recently so it seems like they have been doing this forever, and now it’s gone!
Is it still going to be called Macworld then?
Apple is finally giving in and planning to attend CES. Steve will take Bill Gates’ slot as featured keynoter.
I’m not sure if I’m joking or not about this…
@HMCIV
Right! And I think Apple will be happy to avoid all the pre-EXPO rumor mongering over what new products will be announced each January. I know I will. Now, Apple can make such announcements when and if it has any to make.
My Take.
Hey we needed you to give to company buzz when we were smaller but we have out grown you now so F yourself, I mean it’s me not you really. All to Apple loyalists (Me included), can forget about taking the pilgrimage to se his highness Steve.
Steve is at this moment making dinner arraignments for himself and his 12 closest VPs for sometime around good Friday.