Why Apple pulling out of MacWorld is the best thing they could have done.
I know it’s sad and shocking to the throngs of people who paid thousands of dollars in hotel and airfare to make sure they we’re all set for this January’s SteveNote at MacWorld, to find out that he’s not even going to be there. It was also shocking to a community accustomed to meeting up every year at MacWorld, to find out that the company the trade show was MADE for, has decided to no longer participate in it.
But to be honest, it’s the best thing Apple could have done.
First of all, we’re in what is likely to become an economic crisis only slightly smaller in scope than the great depression. Apple has a lot of cash in the bank, and I have a feeling they want to keep it that way. Spending millions of dollars on a booth, and a keynote at a tradeshow every January, when you have reporters at your beck and call to come to your headquarters any day of the week is simply economically irresponsible. Over the years Apple has proven that product reveal press conferences on their own terms work just as well as the ones at MacWorld. Sure you won’t be able to get into one anymore if you aren’t in the inner circle of Apple Favored Press, but who cares? There are so many live blogs of the event, and an HD quality stream of it available afterward. Does it really matter?
Secondly, HAVING to deliver an important keynote every January has likely driven the development teams at Apple insane. Every year I imagine December at Apple headquarters being quite an un-happy place to work. Instead of being able to enjoy the holiday season, everyone is likely in crunch mode working on finishing whatever is to be debuted at MacWorld in the beginning of January. And as we know from the recent iPhone and MacBook releases, Apple is no good when it comes to it’s quality control on it’s first gen products.
Not being required to give a keynote every January will likely give Apple dev teams the ability to get a product more polished before its release, and Steve and Co. will be able to schedule a keynote for whenever the cool new product is actually DONE.
So what’s up with Steve not being in the keynote this year? Simple. He wants a clean break from MacWorld. I wouldn’t expect any groundbreaking announcements, that’s for sure. If Steve is trusting the show entirely to Shiller, they haven’t got anything cool up their sleeve for January. So what will they show? Maybe a couple of speedbumps on existing products, perhaps a 32 gig iPhone? Maybe a $99 iPhone nano. Show off the improvements of Snow Leopard. But nothing that the world is gonna “ooh” and “ahh” over. Apple’s goal here is to make MacWorld irrelevant to their business. So they will damned well make sure that this keynote is as irrelevant as possible. Heck I wouldn’t put it past them to have an event with Steve at the helm a couple weeks after MacWorld just to screw them.
If there is one thing I really respect Apple for, it’s the uncanny ability they have of being able to throw the baby out with the bathwater, without any regard for what might happen. If something doesn’t work for them, they change it, whether you like it or not. OS X is a perfect example of this. They tossed out the old OS entirely and started from scratch. They knew it would be painful in the short term, but it put them on the stellar track they are on today. Same goes for MacWorld. They used it to their advantage when they were a smaller company, and this was the best place for them to get publicity. Now that it’s more money than it’s worth, and they can simply call the bloggers in on any old day of the week, why spend the money? It’s not worth it. Out with the bathwater Macworld!
So all in all, I don’t think for a second that Apple leaving MacWorld is a bad thing for Apple. They’ll still be able to bring us all the cool stuff we expect, and now it’ll be on their own terms, instead of the yearly CES style keynote that they have had to do in the past. Seems more like their style anyway.
Is it bad for MacWorld? Of course it is! Without support from Apple, or at least Adobe, the show is doomed. But with these days of Twitter, and blogs, is a trade show really necissary anymore? Not as much as you’d think I’d imagine.