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Dec 19, 08 - 10:24 am Comment from: Ouate de Phoque

Temper tantrums are good -:)

Dec 19, 08 - 10:24 am Comment from: DLMeyer

This sounds almost plausible. Except that we have always heard rumors of "the discussion" prior to noting "the fit" in the past. For example ... "I want it in NYC"/"we want it in Boston" = "we won't be coming".

I agree this sounds very plausible. Even if Apple was planning on doing macworld this one last time you would think Steve himself would have done the last keynote.

It is entirely possible that Steve threw a temper tantrum and cancelled at the last minute.
Although, somehow I think I agree with the other theories that say Apple does not have anything really good to show at macworld.
:(

Dec 19, 08 - 10:35 am Comment from: Cascadians

Corrections:

Shiva is male.

It's called a meltdown, not a temper tantrum.

Dec 19, 08 - 10:53 am Comment from: ron

Temper Fugit.

Dec 19, 08 - 10:57 am Comment from: Anim8me2

Cringely is an ass and from the tone it sounds like he tried for a job with one of the many "arms of Shiva" and didn't get the gig.

Dec 19, 08 - 10:58 am Comment from: dix99

I don't see this much fuss being caused with Adobe pulling out of Macworld. Maybe Adobe's about to go bust & seek the Government helping hands!

It doesn't have the signs of anything. The only thing we know is that this is the last one and that Jobs isn't doing it. The reasons why could be one or more of any number options.

Ultimately Macworld could be better off, it might suffer intially but it could let smaller developers shine more - especially with increased development for the iPhone meaning there are more Apple based titles than ever.

Well, we all know why Minnie Mouse divorced Mickey....

It was because she was f#*king Goofy...

Dec 19, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: MCCFR

1) It costs a ridiculous amount of money to do these shows. It starts with paying several hundred dollars per square meter, so a large stand (say 50' x 50') is going to be $75,000 or so for starters.

2) Then they start screwing you for electricity (at an exhibition in the UK recently, we got screwed for around $600 for each 1Kw connection for three days), internet access (a couple of thousand bucks), drayage.

3) Now you have to build a stand.

4) Then you have to dedicate ridiculous amount of managerial and technical resources, just so some spotty teenagers can come and paw at whatever Steve has just announced. Probably depleting the talent left at Cupertino to the receptionists, the post room and whoever fills the coffee machine.

5) And you also have to align your product development plans to someone else's timetable.

6) And it's becoming harder and harder to top the "last big thing" so that nobody is disappointed.

Screw it. Use the Apple Stores. More people, more control, less pressure, less money.

Dec 19, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: DanielM

As I have said before, you invite a guest to come to you home for dinner and to bring the main course. Then you have you and your associates crap over the menu, complain on how it was cooked and rant because he didn't bring a complementary desert.

Not only that but you support a bunch of beguiling yahoos and criticize or ban anybody that comes to your guest's defence.

Apple doesn't need Macworld.

To Steve: Hold your own party. Just like your WWDC, build it and we will come. With bells on.

Makes me cringe. According to most Hindus, Shiva is a guy, a God. Kind of sets the general credibility level for this opinion.

Dec 19, 08 - 11:35 am Comment from: The Dude

@ MCCFR

I heard that Apple was shelling out WELL over 1 Million to do a Macworld show.

For Apple, this is just dumb. They get MORE attention I think by sending out media invites for a "Special Event", throw in a little catch phrase that people will start running wildly at the mouth about what it could mean.

They hold the special even where they please, at the price that suits them. It is a much better "bang for the buck" than Macworld.

The fact that APPLE gets to decide when the release a product, and not the timing of Macworld deciding it is just icing on the cake.

The Dude abides.

Dec 19, 08 - 11:38 am Comment from: The Dude

I should add for clarity, "For Apple, this is just dumb.". I was meaning, to continue to attend Macworld and waste precious resources (even though Apple has plenty in the bank).

The Dude abides.

If Jobs really had a temper tantrum, Apple would have pulled out of the 2009 show, not given IDG a year's notice.

You are absolutely correct. Trade shows were developed for one reason: to allow customers to see and inspect the wares of a company before making a buying decision. Having a lot of vendors in on spot for a few days was very efficient when the only way to compare competing products was to travel to each manufacturer; perhaps thousands of miles apart. Those days are gone for Apple. I has spent that past 7 years building out a retail network that now provides the mass of those interested a place to go and experience Apple Products. They have custom events and advertising to promote new products. MacWorld should still be able to survive with Apple, but Apple has grown out of its need for MacWorld.

Dec 19, 08 - 11:40 am Comment from: Cascadians

" .... throw in a little catch phrase that people will start running wildly at the mouth about what it could mean .... "

LOL! Exactly what Apple just did, rather cleverly. Over 2000 articles ranting and raving and speculating. A lot of hysteria over "Just Say No."

January 24, 2009.
25th Anniversary Mac

I have yet to see one article that points out a single compelling reason why Apple needs MacWorld.

Dec 19, 08 - 11:41 am Comment from: HMCIV

MDN has it backwards. Steve Jobs pulled out. Then we heard "Klaatu barada nikto"

@Cascadians/Anim8me2: Personally I don't Shiv-a-Git what the war god is. If Cringely sought employment for one of the Arms, he probably at best was offered a Hand Job.

Dec 19, 08 - 11:44 am Comment from: The Dude

@ bizlaw,
Apple most likely has signed a contract already for this year to attend. Easier to just go then try to get out of it... plus I think it would "burn" Macworld more for there to be no Jobs there. It's like going to a concert to see your favorite band, but find out it is just some crappy cover band instead.

The Dude abides.

Instead everyone seems to take enormous pleasure in concocting these conspiratorial, speculative, random, theories which are pure fantasy. Steve is gonna die or no he's just in a bad mood. Apple finally just ran out of ideas or they realized nobody is buying anymore Apple gear.

Man I wish they'd get their stories straight.

I'm sorry to disagree with everyone, but I can very easily see Steve Jobs getting pissed about something with the show and having a tantrum. Sure, this isn't the only reason, but it makes as much sense.

The company that I work for has several show booths that they take to every show. Apple probably has one stored a block away from the Mosconi Center. It's not that much money or time that Apple is spending for MacWorld.

Cringely is obviously a Republican, sounds a lot like the kind of crap McCain was was tossing about pre-election…

All this speculation about what is behind the move is just that, sheer speculation.

There is nothing wrong with that, but it should be stated right up front in this article as well as the three or four other theories bandying their way about the internet this morning.

The point is, in my experience, speculation is only a fruitful pursuit if there is a mystery and no common explanation(s) that fit the available facts. In this case we have an abundance of actual good evidence that the show was expensive, tiresome, and counterproductive to the company in many ways. there is no *need* to speculate on alien causes or Jobs temper tantrums because there is no "mystery" as to why Apple would have opted out of the show.

Finally, speaking as a member of the same generation as them, the pundits pushing the conspiracy theories this morning are all just a bit too OLD for me to take anything they ay at face value. These are the 50 something guys who's whole CAREERS have centred around going to trade shows. Now they are the ones that can't see the writing on the wall in regards how trade shows are themselves a thing of the past.

Dec 19, 08 - 12:33 pm Comment from: Not Bill

@ Dimebag

No! Don't take us there.

Trade shows are obsolete for certain types of businesses, but not others. The porn industry is in the other category, Apple is not.

By not having to meet MacWorld-induced high expectations, Apple can set its own timing for important announcements, and can, inter alia, reduce unrealistic expectations of delivering miracles every January.

It's also necessary for Apple to reduce the impact of the cult of personality, and give the CEO a break in the process. He's earned it.

I don't know how it happened, but the last entry posted from MCCFR is actually from me, Spark.

Sorry, MCCFR, didn't mean to put words into your mouth.

Dec 19, 08 - 01:05 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Rudge says...

"The company that I work for has several show booths that they take to every show... It's not that much money or time that Apple is spending for MacWorld."

Distilled ignorance.

You have absolutely no idea what Apple (or your company, for that matter) spends on Macworld. Also, do you realize Macworld planning begins the day after the last show? How many Apple employees do you suppose are involved in these events? Hundreds? How many of them work full-time, year-round, dedicated to this event?

I'll bet the total dollars expended annually for Macworld exceeds your company's entire operating budget!

Think!

Dec 19, 08 - 01:11 pm Comment from: Cascadians

Correction: Shiva isn't a war god. He is the personification of Destruction in the triune Nature of God. Creation, preservation, destruction = the show of creation goes on.

Those who do not care about facts live in a delusional world.

Dec 19, 08 - 01:27 pm Comment from: MCCFR

Spark…

Tis cool!

I've had far more offensive sentiments put "in my mouth" over the last few years on this site.

Why they let this twit anywhere near a keyboard, much less be allowed to use a knife and fork is beyond me.

Please, anyone: For 50 bonus points, in the years since you started reading the drivel issued by his Cringelyness, has ANY of his predictions or his analysis of current events ever been even close to correct or true?

I thought so.

I suspect the biggest issue for Apple was not dollars, but calories. The human resources devoted to MacWorld are significant and disruptive to other activities. For a company whose head count is not all that large to begin with (if you leave out the retail staff), sending hundreds of employees to SF for a week was probably a huge pain without a offsetting benefit.

For better or worse, Apple's business model is changing. With the growth in the Mac/iPod/iPhone audience comes a shift in how the company must relate to much larger numbers. For those of us who have been with the Mac since the beginning (or before, since I owned a Lisa), it is a little sad; my first MacWorld was Boston in 1985.

But I am also a stockholder, and I always want Apple skating to where the puck will be. May Apple and MacWorld both find better futures from this choice.

Actually, I always enjoy Cringely's conspiracy theories, even if I don't believe them. They are quite creative.

And I believe that he has a point. While I'm not sure I agree with the whole "temper-tantrum" argument, I'm sure Apple basically said, "We want this much space at this price" and IDG said, "No, you're going to pay us more money" and Apple said, "Without us, you have no show. See ya."

Also, as has been said over and over, Apple doesn't really need MacWorld. At this point, when Steve says, "Hey, we're going to have a presentation for the press," the press shows up. Apple now has a plethora of retail stores where customers and potential customers can come and see and touch the products before buying them.

I do worry a bit about WWDC taking the place of MacWorld. Several years back, I and many other developers got a bit torqued when the keynote was taken over with iPod stuff. I'm not paying $1200 to hear about Apple stuff that I can't develop for. I'll grant you it's a bit different now (I can develop for the iPod touch and iPhone) but I don't need to spend $1200 to hear about "AppleTV Take 3" this summer at WWDC unless I can deploy my applications on it.

Dec 19, 08 - 03:10 pm Comment from: LordRobin

Um... If I understand right, Shiva is both genders. So, goddess, god -- take your pick.

------RM

Dec 19, 08 - 03:33 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

That's what Macworld gets for shooting the scroll of knowledge out of Steve Jobs hand.

Sorry MDN can you repeat that last line, I just want to make sure I heard you right; you know, before I do something silly ...
... So once again was that Klaatu Barada Nikto or Klatu Verada Taco.

If Apple put it's mega-buck toward opening Apple stores in every major city in the world, they wouldn't need any kind of shows. They could make major announcements on the Web and co-ordinate with big promotional events at all the Apple Stores.

Newspapers and TV cameras would simply pick-up the line-ups in front of all the Apple Stores and add to the event.

Gender is the wrong word, it would be both "sexes." Words have gender but people have sex.

on showing that stupid Macheads movie.
As I've said before...
embarrassing.

Kali is the goddess of destruction. She is Shiva's consort. Shiva is the supreme god.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali

Tantrum, my ass.

There's a far simpler explanation than Mark Stephens' fantasy, and it's the same one that Apple gave in their press release. Trade shows just aren't cost effective anymore.

Apple has pulled out of MWNY, MW Paris, NAB, and the writing's been on the wall for MWSF a very long time. I've been going to it for the last five years or so, and the show floor keeps getting smaller.

-jcr

"Cringely is obviously a Republican,"

WTF? Since when is jealously of a highly successful entrepreneur a republican habit?

Cringely is as pink around the edges as any other journalist working today.

-jcr

You know... with all the pro-Apple talk (Apple is doing the right thing because trade shows/conventions are dead/dying) in all the discussions about Apple's pull out... I have yet to read/hear of a rather well publicized exception the "trade shows/conventions are dead/dying" rule.

And, if IDG based a new type of show on it, they just might be able to steal a bit of Apple's thunder. Because these events hold inestimatable PR value.

Use the San Diego and New York ComiCons as new trade show/convention models, aimed not at the tech industry, but the Apple/Mac buying public.

Call it AppleCon, MacCon, iCon or X-Con.