December 16, 2008, 5:28 PM — Apple on Tuesday announced that Macworld Conference & Expo 2009 will be the company's last. The company also said Steve Jobs will not deliver his traditional keynote at the event this year.
Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller will be delivering the keynote at the 2009 expo. That, said Apple, will be its last keynote at the show.
"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 company said in a statement posted to its Web site. "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."
Apple points out that it has been scaling back on trade shows over recent years including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.
