14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's press room is featuring a shocker saying “Apple Announces Its Last Year at Macworld.” The company has found that trade shows are not its thing anymore, while Steve Jobs will not be present at this last event. Instead, Phil Schiller will be the keynote holder.
An excerpt from Apple's official announcement goes,
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.
According to the report, Apple has achieved its goal in reaching customers, mostly thanks to the increasing popularity of its retail stores. The stores attract more than 3.5 million visitors every week, “So, like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers,” reads the piece.
The official Apple.com website, which enables the Cupertino-based Mac maker to reach more than a hundred million customers around the world, is also playing a role in Apple's increasing popularity. “Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo, and Apple Expo in Paris,” the company admits.
Apple's CEO was already expected to miss this year's keynote presentation, before Apple's confirmation. According to Jim Goldman of CNBC, Steve Jobs is not ill, as some have speculated. Before Apple got a chance to announce the pulling away from Macworld, Goldman supported the company's explanation. “Jobs' decision was more about politics than his pancreas. If Jobs for some reason was unable to perform any of his responsibilities as CEO because of health reasons, which would include the Macworld keynote, I should 'rest assured that the board would let me know,” he said. “Steve Jobs is fine. It's Macworld the expo that's on its last legs,” he concluded.