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.
Gman is right.
I have always wanted to go to a MW and watch SJ give a keynote.
I am a little depressed now. I did not fulfill my mac-mecca dream and now I can’t ever.
times have changed. I always look forward to trade shows… Just like car shows and camera shows, these are needed to show off the newest and best of the brands… I think this is a big mistake for Apple. We will see how it pans out in the coming years for the fruit maker.
I had a pass and was planning on shooting that.
I don’t think I’ll be going now.
Loved Steve. Loved the products. Heartily fed up with all the whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ which quite frankly became embarrassing and started to spoil it for me. The last show was the worst – Steve only had to pass comment on one minor improvement to a product and the reaction was like listening to a brawl in a chimphouse. It gave ammo to those who like to sneer and mock the so-called cult of the Mac.
If there was an ‘insanely great’ product to be announced at Macworld, then I think he would have put in one last appearance.
It’s the end of what was, for me, an enjoyable era.
Thanks Steve!
Saw Jobs give the keynote @ NeXT World Expo in 1993. I still remember the party sponsored by Stone Design. Or mostly remember
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APPL down about $5 in ‘after hours’ trading as I’m writing this.
“Now, cue the “Jobs is dying” articles in 3, 2, 1…”
Apple Inc.(NasdaqGS: AAPL)
After Hours: 92.00 -3.43 (-3.59%) 5:03pm ET
Less than a half hour after this was posted, shares nosedived. . . .and that was with no printed matter anywhere mentioning Steve Jobs health outside of what was included in the MDN Take!
Hah!! Just when you “thought” (MDN MW) it wouldn’t get worse, it did!
Apple Inc.(NasdaqGS: AAPL)
After Hours: 91.50 -3.93 (-4.12%) 5:07pm ET
If I remember correctly, Jobs inherited the Macworld Expo. The problem is that Apple’s now-secretive nature doesn’t compliment the Expo, in my opinion. People would leave the Expo disappointed and APPL stocks would fall because rumor expectations were not often met at the time of the Expo.
Also, from my perspective, although there were technology improvements in the iMac when the silver iMacs were first announced, the announcement of the silver iMac would have arguably been more appropriate for one of HGTV’s interior design shows as opposed to a “major” technology announcement from Apple.
So not only has Apple essentially perfected the personal computer from an OS point of view, in my opinion, but since the iPhone has already been introduced, I expect any major new technology announcements from “Apple” these days to actually come from Intel or other third party.