For Apple, '08 ends with the Macworld clunker

Until mid-December, the big news about the upcoming Macworld Expo and Conference was that Adobe Systems Inc. and Belkin International Inc. weren't going to exhibit at the big show.

Then came the bombshell from Apple Inc. that it wouldn't take part in the event after 2009 -- and CEO Steve Jobswouldn't even be on hand for his highly anticipated keynote address next week. (The show runs Jan. 5-9.)

For those of you who don't know -- and if you're reading an about the Macworld Expo, you really should -- the Expo is an annual holy site for Mac users, developers and resellers. Jobs rises to the stage to give the keynote, confirming or confounding wild rumors about fantastic new Apple products; various conference tracks get the technically curious up to speed on new Mac tech; and everyone gets to flood the show floor at San Francisco's Moscone Center to get their sticky mitts all over product, product, product. It's a weird combination of a car show, revival tent and pilgrimage.

And while IDG Expo, which puts on the event, says there'll still be a Macworld Expo in 2010, Apple's move raises serious doubts about prospects for 2011. Older hands on deck will remember that there used to be two Macworld Expos each year: the San Francisco one in January and a summer one in New York (which moved, under a cloud of controversy, from Boston). Then, five years ago, Apple pulled out of the summer Expo. At the time, it cited the cost of hauling everything and everyone to the far coast as a reason. And that may have been a valid one. After all, it was fairly redundant of the January show, and it pressured Apple to come up with something to announce on a timetable not its own.

The summer Expo Without Apple was sad. A friend who attended reported that it was mostly iPod case vendors -- and future East Coast shows were eventually cancelled.

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