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

[Timothy Butler]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

	-Tim



On Dec 17, 2008, at 8:23 PM, Fred A. Miller wrote:

> Is the Sky Falling - or Has Apple Outgrown Macworld?
>
> Erika Morphy
> 12/17/08 12:59 PM PT
>
> Macworld has been a mecca for Apple acolytes in years past, complete
> with lucky ticket holders waiting in long lines to enter the sacred
> sanctum where Steve Jobs delivers a keynote address, while larger  
> crowds
> of attendees wait forlornly on the outside. That scenario will never
> occur again. Jobs -- and Apple -- have kissed Macworld goodbye.
>
> http://www.macnewsworld.com/edpick/65544.html
>
> -- 
> "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
>
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---
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Editor, OfB.biz   | The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the  
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tbutler at ofb.biz   | Licked  its  tongue  into the  corners  of  the   
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                                                                 --  
T.S. Eliot