Apple Announces its Last Year at Macworld

In some rather surprising news yesterday, Apple has announced that the upcoming Macworld conference in San Francisco will be its last. Since the conference has always been Apple-focused, the fact that Apple themselves are leaving is going to make things very, very interesting. Some are already confident that with this news, the conference is destined to be no more in a few years.

Macworld has played a vital role in some major Apple announcements in recent years. In 1998, they unveiled their iMac, and we all know how that went. Two years later, they showcased OS X to thousands of drooling fans, while a year later, iTunes was introduced. More recently, it was the 2007 show where the iPhone was first revealed, and last year, Macworld was the place where Apple introduced their ultra-thin MacBook Air.

To say that Macworld has played a huge role in Apple’s unveiling of new products would be a huge understatement, and their decision to pull out of the show doesn’t give much confidence in trade shows as a whole. People have been calling for the death of such shows for a while, and it’s changes like these that make it easy to believe.

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 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.