Apple Expo canceled following Apple's Macworld pullout

[AppleInsider]

Organizers for the Apple Expo in Paris confirmed Wednesday that the annual trade show has been canceled indefinitely, with this year's show likely having been its last.

Word of the show's demise came just hours after Apple's surprising announcement that it will no longer participate in the stateside Macworld Expo, which has traditionally seen chief executive Steve Jobs unveil the company's latest product innovations during an inaugural keynote address.

Jobs had also been a fixture at the Paris expo until 2004, when he was forced to undergo surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas. Although the Apple co-founder was scheduled to present the keynote address the following year, he subsequently canceled and has not made an appearance at the show since.

Still, Apple remained an exhibitor at the show until this year, when they company quietly backed out of the conference with out providing a formal explanation. Apple Expo was once the world's largest Apple trade conference, attracting more than 90,000 attendees a year during its prime.

Attendance fell to 54,000 last year as Apple, facing last minute delays in launching the iPhone locally, was unable to show off the touch-screen handset during the conference. The French-language Mac4Ever, which broke the news of next year's Apple Expo cancelation, said the attendance for this year's show fell to 30,000.

Apple has*been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years. Its decision to forgo Apple Expo and Macworld San Francisco follows its departure the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Macworld New York, and Macworld Tokyo trade shows.

Both Macworld and Apple Expo stretch back 25 years.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[8CoreWhore]

I bet a bunch of Apple employees miss going to Paris!

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Well at least they have an Apple flagship store to look forward to.

[elliots11]

I didn't know they'd pulled out of all of these tradeshows. I can understand them doing it in a weak economy to save money, but it doesn't sound like a good idea in the long term.

[WiggyWack]

The only reason Steve isn't speaking at MacWorld is because he's going back to his home planet for upgrades to his Reality Distortion Field.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by WiggyWack

The only reason Steve isn't speaking at MacWorld is because he's going back to his home planet for upgrades to his Reality Distortion Field.

Cross-posting the same thing to multiple threads is bad form.

Are you trying to pump your own blog? That's what it looks like. Every single post flogs a blog post to the same domain more than it does add to the discussion. I'm having a hard time telling if you're trying to be a spammer or not.

[roehlstation]

Originally Posted by elliots11

I didn't know they'd pulled out of all of these tradeshows. I can understand them doing it in a weak economy to save money, but it doesn't sound like a good idea in the long term.

These tradeshows don't hold much water anymore, they are expensive and unnecessary. Most vendors at them lately have just been iPod holder vendors. I think they may still continue the WWDC since it was their conference and not some publising company.

That said, I'm glad I've been to at least one Steve Jobs Keynote (announcement of the Cube) and thanks for the free mouse Steve.

[FlashmanBurgess]

I used to go to MacWorld every year back in the 90's and they were great fun. I went to MacWorld in 2005 and was so disappointed, I thought "this isn't going to last long if they continue to be this boring". No innovation, no new technology worth seeing other than the handful of leading companies like Adobe and the like, and like someone else pointed out, 95% iPod accessories. I don't need to pay $400 for plane fare, and $500 MacWorld entrance fee to see a silicon ipod holder.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by FlashmanBurgess

I used to go to MacWorld every year back in the 90's and they were great fun. I went to MacWorld in 2005 and was so disappointed, I thought "this isn't going to last long if they continue to be this boring". No innovation, no new technology worth seeing other than the handful of leading companies like Adobe and the like, and like someone else pointed out, 95% iPod accessories.

I would expect that there would be a lot of iPod accessories, Apple makes about as much from iPods as they do Macs, it takes several iPods to equal the money coming from one Mac.

I don't need to pay $400 for plane fare, and $500 MacWorld entrance fee to see a silicon ipod holder.

Did it really cost that much? What was in the package? That's quite a lot of money. I was pretty shocked at the price of putting a small booth there, but a business in the past was able to call that part of the cost of doing business. Maybe not so much now.

[hmurchison]

Trade Show have been passe for half a decade.

I haven't even really been impressed with the latest NAMM and NAB shows.

Now with websites and embedded videos it becomes a lot easier to give people a
sense for how your product works.

Software developers would do better to leverage the effective use of screencasting their
applications rather than sit in some booth trying to yell over the guy next door hawking his
product.

The big companies like Adobe, Microsoft and Apple have their own marketing dept and they do a damn good job of getting their products out. In fact I get sick of seeing their products everywhere quite honestly.

[teckstud]

Oh NO- it's the Domino effect!
What's next?

[JetDesigner]

I agree that computer trade shows have been in decline since the mid-1990's. I used to go to COMDEX in Las Vegas in the early 1990's. COMDEX was the largest computer industry trade show in the US, drawing up to 250000 visitors during the show's peak. Before the rise of the internet, trade shows were the best way to get product information out to the people in the industry. With the internet, it's much easier to get the company and product information out to the public without the expense of buying and staffing a large booth at a trade show. I think it's inevtable that MacWorld Expo goes the way of the COMDEX, fading into history.

[bloggerblog]

You mean we're not going to listen to that guy with the heavy French accent?!

[bloggerblog]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Oh NO- it's the Domino effect!
What's next?

Apple is going to have a new CEO... The Mac Nazi!!!
No Mac For You!

[mrob]

Its not just tech trade shows--exhibits at all conferences are being scaled back, as are conferences themselves. I'm chalking it up to the economy, but won't be surprised to see the conference model change substantially as technology improves. It seems archaic in some professions to bring everyone together like this. . .

[kerryn]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Cross-posting the same thing to multiple threads is bad form.

Are you trying to pump your own blog? That's what it looks like. Every single post flogs a blog post to the same domain more than it does add to the discussion. I'm having a hard time telling if you're trying to be a spammer or not.

Whether he's spamming or not, that was a pretty funny read...

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by WiggyWack

The only reason Steve isn't speaking at MacWorld is because he's going back to his home planet for upgrades to his Reality Distortion Field.

[hillstones]

Originally Posted by FlashmanBurgess

I used to go to MacWorld every year back in the 90's and they were great fun. I went to MacWorld in 2005 and was so disappointed, I thought "this isn't going to last long if they continue to be this boring". No innovation, no new technology worth seeing other than the handful of leading companies like Adobe and the like, and like someone else pointed out, 95% iPod accessories. I don't need to pay $400 for plane fare, and $500 MacWorld entrance fee to see a silicon ipod holder.

Thank you! Someone who actually had been to good Macworlds and bad, and realized they aren't worth spending money on anymore. I would never spend $500 for ANY trade show. Apple does just fine without them. Since they have nothing new to announce, there is no reason for them to be there.

[lightstriker]

Less expos, less rumors, less rumor sites, AppleInsider a spiraling death.

[Fast Fred 1]

Well there's always Paris..... Kentucky.

Originally Posted by 8CoreWhore

I bet a bunch of Apple employees miss going to Paris!

[aplnub]

I will say that the economy may have an impact on booth sizing, staff brought along, etc., but this move by Apple has Zero to do with the economy and more to do with something else.

I think the DC is the most important function every year and you won't see that getting any smaller, I would bet on that. These MW functions were nice news generators when Apple was that artsy fartsy computer company that no one paid any attention too. Now that they have everyone's attention, the size of the ocean changes and so do their habits.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by kerryn

Whether he's spamming or not, that was a pretty funny read...

eh, i would call it jejune and pedestrian.

[jasenj1]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Did it really cost that much? What was in the package? That's quite a lot of money. I was pretty shocked at the price of putting a small booth there, but a business in the past was able to call that part of the cost of doing business. Maybe not so much now.

For the full package you got into a bunch of training classes. They had several different tracks covering many products. I was always too cheap/poor to afford the Conference package and just got the Expo Only ticket - that got you into the vendor exhibits. You can see for yourself at http://www.macworldexpo.com.

- Jasen.

[DrJedi]

Macworlds were fun to watch when the processor wars were on. The secrecy..... the anticipation...... PPC vs Intel, Mac vs Wintel...... RISC vs CISC.... now computers are all on the same hardware and it's dullsville.

[Marvin]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Cross-posting the same thing to multiple threads is bad form.

Are you trying to pump your own blog? That's what it looks like. Every single post flogs a blog post to the same domain more than it does add to the discussion. I'm having a hard time telling if you're trying to be a spammer or not.

I think it counts as spam. It's an ad-supported site and as you say, every single post is a link to the blog. Maybe that's his way of answering forum posts but it shouldn't be allowed if he keeps posting that way, it's quite a lot of referral links at AI's expense. It'll just get other blog promoters trying to do the same thing.

They do seem relevant to the discussion threads though and it's not really feasible for him to post the contents of the articles into a thread nor point people to it without a direct link but the cross-posting is going too far. Especially when it's not really that funny.

Originally Posted by lightstriker

Less expos, less rumors, less rumor sites, AppleInsider a spiraling death.

Not quite. This may do the opposite. Apple will still release products but now we have one less guideline as to when they're coming so rumors may get a bit crazier. WWDC is the only event that won't change.

They probably pulled out of Paris due to Steve's private plane fuel costs. He'll have to get the bus from now on so American venues only.

BTW, I think the title of this article is misleading. It's just the Paris expo that's cancelled. The main one in the Moscone centre, San Francisco is still going ahead and IDG say it will continue like this:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/business/n...m?newsid=24020

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by DrJedi

Macworlds were fun to watch when the processor wars were on. The secrecy..... the anticipation...... PPC vs Intel, Mac vs Wintel...... RISC vs CISC.... now computers are all on the same hardware and it's dullsville.

That doesn't make any sense, it's not the CPU architecture that makes Macs interesting to most people. CPU architectures weren't that big of a deal. PPC might have allowed Apple to make what they wanted for a while, but that time went away, and Apple is making better machines with x86 - that has more to do with power and heat than microarchitecture.

It sounds more like you're consuming a particular vintage of RDF and not really looking AT the machines.

[Shaun, UK]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Oh NO- it's the Domino effect!
What's next?

.... Probably the London show.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the end for all the Mac exhibitions worldwide.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by DrJedi

Macworlds were fun to watch when the processor wars were on. The secrecy..... the anticipation...... PPC vs Intel, Mac vs Wintel...... RISC vs CISC.... now computers are all on the same hardware and it's dullsville.

Whatever happened to the "PC ate my term paper" girl??
I thought MacWorld just wasn't the same anymore after she left the picture.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Whatever happened to the "PC ate my term paper" girl??
I thought MacWorld just wasn't the same anymore after she left the picture.

I think that might be Ellen Feiss or something like that.

Was she ever in the picture? Did she go to the show?

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

I think that might be Ellen Feiss or something like that.

Was she ever in the picture? Did she go to the show?

They showed her video at the beginning of the keynote to thunderous applause. It was a riot. I think she was seated there- I think.

[jowie74]

Originally Posted by Shaun, UK

.... Probably the London show.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the end for all the Mac exhibitions worldwide.

I thought Apple pulled out of the London Expo ages ago?

I didn't bother going last time, only about half of one single hall had anything in it the previous time. It was so awful we ditched it and went to the Apple Store on Regent Street.