Macworld Without The Mac: In A Blow To The Franchise, Apple Pulls Out Of The Expo
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
The upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo will be Apple's last. The tech giant is pulling out of the yearly event where Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) faithful convene to be wowed by new products, attend seminars and info sessions, and generally geek out. Philip Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide product marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for the conference this January, but the company said it would not exhibit at future shows via a press release.
As Digital Daily notes, the unexpected news delivers a huge blow to IDG, parent company of the Macworld brand (magazine, Website and conference). Given the sorry state of print advertising, any new budget holes on the events side of the Macworld business will be sorely felt.
It also raises the question of how the conference will sustain itself without what has arguably become its main attractionApple CEO Steve Jobs showing off new products. Jobs debuted the iPhone and AppleTV in 2007, for example, and the ultra-thin MacBook Air laptop this year. But apparently the buzz whipped up at Macworld isn't worth the amount it costs to host an exhibit: Apple said that trade shows had become a "very minor part" of how it reaches its customers, and hinted that it was doing fine through in-store and online sales. Meanwhile, Wall Street didn't take the news as a positive sign: Apple's shares were down more than five percent in after-hours trading following the news. Release.
By Tameka Kee