End of an Era: Macworld
Apple announced today that Steve Jobs would not keynote the San Francisco Macworld Expo in January 2009, suggesting (a.) that there isn’t anything cool enough for Jobs to personally go public with and (b.) that Apple feels the tradeshow has runs its course in terms of usefulness to the company. According to the press release, this will be Apple’s last yearon the show floor, as well. The release cites the growth of their Apple Stores as a way for them to reach out to 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.
It’s been years since I’ve attended a Macworld Expo myself (I don’t remember how many, but certainly my last show was before I moved to Mississippi in 2001), but I remember them fondly, particularly as I was attending through the lean years, pre-Jobs, when there were few enough of us “Mac authors” still fighting it out with the PC snobs and the Apple dead-enders. I remember the Return of Jobs in Boston in 1997, although I wasn’t there for that one…I believe there was a QuickTime simulcast. I think I WAS there in 1998 for Macworld SF, and I’ve seen Jobs do his live thing a number of times since.
I remember the fight over moving Macworld from Boston to New York (I was there for at least one of those; I remember meeting one of my editors at a great bar on 9th Avenue back when I was living there) and then Apple’s subsequent pulling of the plug on that one, too.
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