[CS-FSLUG] Tim, do you have any words of wisdom about this?

[Fred A. Miller]

Timothy Butler wrote:
> Heh. Sure. My primary theory would be that Apple already dumped IDG's
> other big MacWorld event -- MacWord New York (later Boston), which use
> to be their big summer time announcement platform. Jobs started making a
> big deal out of his WWDC keynotes after that. Just guessing, but perhaps
> Apple is planning to replace MacWorld San Francisco similarly. That's
> most likely, I believe.

Ok......sounds plausible.

> It may also be that Apple no longer wants to be tied down to specific
> dates for unveiling products. WWDC moves around, in part, based on when
> Apple has stuff ready to show. It has been as early as the first week in
> June and as late as mid-August. They usually announce it a few months
> early. MacWorld was always announced a year ahead of time.
> 
> Apple in recent years seems to favor smaller events on its schedule in
> general. For example, it announced the iPhone SDK not at some big event,
> but one called two or three weeks in advance (rather than months) and
> held it at its own campus. Likewise, it has done so for the last few
> major computer updates -- most recently the unibody MacBooks and the
> aluminum iMacs. iPods usually get updated at the same, non-trade show
> events.

Well, it certainly is cheaper to bring something new to market that way.
Let the
press do some of your marketing for you. ;)

> Given that AAPL stock tumbles whenever there is a trade show, because
> Apple can never release EVERYTHING rumored, it may be wise to go this
> route.

Makes sense.

> Finally, (though I doubt this, unless Jobs really is extremely ill) it
> may be that Apple is trying to de-emphasize the Stevenote so that
> investors don't see the company's fate so tied up with one man.
> Likewise, if Phil Shiller does a great job and announces some products
> at MacWorld, it would further build up the idea that Jobs is not 
> irreplaceable. A good thing.

Logical. I still have a gut feeling that Jobs is not all that well. Time
will tell.

> Oh, one more: trade shows in general seem to be dying. Maybe that's part
> of the reason?

Some are because of corporate costs to attend. I think this started when
the
IRS rules for deductions took a dump. A LOT of corps started cutting
back then.

Fred

-- 
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties
than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to
control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by
deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks
will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up
homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson, 1802