While the economy is of course a concern for many companies (especially Adobe who are handing out pink slips), we have to wonder if these four companies might have had prior knowledge about Steve Jobs' absence from Macworld before the general public knew. Google, who significantly downsized their booth just a week before Apple's announcement, shares Eric Schmidt, their CEO with Apple's Board of Directors. Adobe, whose relationship with Apple has been pretty tumultuous lately, also has many Apple insiders who could have been privy to the situation. They pulled out just over a week before the announcement.
Seagate and Belkin are both much smaller players in the Apple landscape but industry sources could have been floating these rumors for quite awhile. They have both have bailed on the event in recent days A non-Jobs Macworld certainly isn't the same bang/buck as one with Jobs pulling technology products out of his magic hat.
We can only wonder...
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I would assume they did - I
I would assume they did - I can only imagine that a corporation assuming Jobs would be delivering the welcome Keynote would be part of the desire to have a booth at the show. Macworld has probably known for a week also, and legally (or at least ethically) had to tell their vendors...
I've been thinking the same
I've been thinking the same thing.
Well... think different ;)
Well... think different ;)
I think the Apple fan boy
I think the Apple fan boy community is reading way to much into this.
Trade shows are for the little guys. It's a good way for them to get the word out. Why the hell would Apple need to advertise their products and services to a bunch of Apple fan boys? The Expo-goers are not their target audience. You don't find prospective Apple user/switchers at a Mac Expo. It's a waste of money, time and resources. They have 300 stores.
Do you think Google has to advertise who they are to anyone at Mac Expo?
It's not just Apple and Macworld
I think it's all trade shows. Getting a solid ROI from a trade show is hard to measure, especially compared with other initiatives, such as online marketing. Apple generates good free buzz simply by holding an event to showcase a new product or development; why involve Macworld? Apple can measure ROI from their brick and mortar stores, too. Macworld will survive if it is a worthy venue for all of the vendors, not just Apple. I think this is true for all trade shows: Trade show promoters need to treat their participating vendors like partners, not hostages.
You're thinking this
You're thinking this backwards. A Jobsless MacWorld would be an opportunity for any of them to stand up and grab the aimless spotlight.
Keynote
Maybe Pystar will pick up the slack and do next years keynote ;)
The real reason for the
The real reason for the desertion of Macworld is because Apple was weary of having the wind taken out of their sails on new product announcements by immature bigmouths that just had to tell the world that they knew what Apple was going to release at the show. Now, they can have much better control on information like that leaking out.