Macworld is reporting that Apple will not attend the Apple Expo in France this year. This year's expo is scheduled to take place on September 17 - 20. An Apple spokesperson was quoted by Macworld saying, "Apple is participating in fewer trade shows every year, because often there are better ways for us to reach our customers."Macworld notes that this was the same excuse given by Apple when they decided not to attend the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow. Apple has, however, started using their Cupertino campus to host several special announcements including last year's iMac announcement and the recent iPhone SDK announcement.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-04-2008 @ 5:38PM
john@pm said...
I think it makes sense, as Apple becomes more of a mass-market player, attention paid to a trade show compared to their customer base overall makes attendance less important. It's a fact of the community being less tight-knit as a result, which I find kind of sad because I like the keynote frenzy. http://primitivemachine.net is my site, maybe I'll write something more about that there.
What do you guys think? Larger community good or bad?
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6-06-2008 @ 10:22AM
Jerod said...
That is a pathetic excuse for not being at NAB. There were thousands of products on display that were designed to work with the Final Cut and the Mac, but nowhere was there a place to discuss the values of the Mac. Business consumers and creative professionals don't want to watch an ad on television. They want to touch the product their about to invest in.
6-04-2008 @ 5:45PM
matt said...
Unkie Stevie is getting old, can't hop into Gulfstreams like he used to.
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6-04-2008 @ 6:02PM
Trace said...
Apple is becoming just like Nintendo.
Announce something a month before it comes out and it does amazing.
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6-04-2008 @ 6:59PM
guilt+1 said...
When they did badly it came down to Apple having to show their face everywhere lest it be forgotten. Now they have people coming to them. Why step outside when you don't need to. Show sets cost a fortune for only a couple of days of hype and a diluted walkthrough audience. It's not worth doing every show and it maintains an air of anticipation amongst the fans.
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6-05-2008 @ 4:15AM
mabhatter said...
Trade shows don't cost much more than TV spots they run. it's the good will they gather they'll lose out on. Apple is rapidly getting too big for it's britches. They need taken down a peg quicky, maybe a recall of all iPhones or something nasty. Apple historically seems to forget who it's friends are quite quickly. Now that they have money and fame they want to shut everybody out and only play in "their house".
As a new mac owner, I see the last 9 month has been a descent to the old 1994 Apple that didn't give a damn about the customers or retailers only selling what THEY thought people wanted. Unless somebody reigns in Steve's ego I see them screwing up big time before the end of the year. They've gotten that cocky.
6-04-2008 @ 9:17PM
Unregistered said...
Like what guilt+1 said, it's an effective way to cut cost
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6-04-2008 @ 9:39PM
Scott Stevenson said...
Wow, this is rather lame. I miss the days of a Keynote in the Palais des Congres. That said even when they were happening a number of years had gone by since anything substantial was announced during a Paris keynote. One would think with the strength of the Euro currently Apple'd really be playing to the European market and giving the European press and consumers something to chew on to thereby capitalize on the purchasing power of the currently strong Euro.
-Scott
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7-04-2008 @ 3:33PM
Mike said...
Steve's only interested in the US market. Who else would produce a phone which can't do MMS and a 3G phone that can't do video calls? I don't think he really 'gets' the rest of the world. I said this in an Apple support discussion thread and my post was censored....
6-05-2008 @ 8:45AM
JimD said...
Trade shows are a complete waste of money. They're dinosaurs. The only people that attend these shows are people that are already informed as to what's going on in their particular industry, in this case, Macs.
A TV spot, on the other hand, hits millions of potential customers right in their homes.
The cost of Apple's trade show attendance at Macworld France is probably into the million+ dollar range - and mostly hits existing customers who can read about it on the Web anyway.
I would rather Apple spend that money on R&D for OS and application enhancements.
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6-15-2008 @ 6:46PM
Joe said...
When they were small and struggling, going to trade shows was a must. Now that they are big and successful, they can make people come to them. They don't need that kind of exposure those venues offer.
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