In a move that’s all but guaranteed to spark fresh ‘Steve Jobs health scare’ headlines, Apple has revealed that its head honcho won’t be hosting the keynote at the annual Macworld trade show in January.
El Jobso’s big speech (or Stevenote) is normally the highlight of the event as he regularly uses the platform to make the more exciting Apple unveils. Last year it was the Macbook Air, before that it was the iPhone. Other announcements have included the Mac Mini, the Safari browser, iTunes and the iMac. The term ‘big deal’ doesn’t even come close.
Keynote duties have been handed over to Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. But there’s more: before we even get a chance to see whether Mr Schiller passes muster, Apple will be pulling out of Macworld entirely! The company has announced that January 2009 will be the last time it attends the event.
An official statement reads: “Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its 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.”
Or in other words: trade shows are expensive, exhausting and probably not worth the effort. It claims to have already begun scaling back its efforts at other events, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris. Blame it on the internet.
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