IDG World Expo has just announced the dates for Macworld Expo 2010, shifting the conference's historical January jaunt to February. The Macworld 2010 Conference and Expo will take place in San Francisco from February 9 - 13.

When I spoke to Paul Kent, the General Manager for Macworld Expo, earlier this afternoon, he stressed that IDG is answering a call from exhibitors and attendees to move the event to a less stressful time of year. Developers won't have to rush through the holidays to finish up software demos that might not be ready for a few months anyway, and exhibitors won't need to balance the holidays and booth-planning all at once.

The date change isn't the only new development: the Expo will run from Thursday February 11 - Saturday February 13 (the conference will run from the 9th - 13th). This means that attendees who are full-time professionals won't have to take off as much time from work. Can't make it on Thursday? Come on Saturday. Paul told me the real goal for Macworld 2010 is to make Macworld about the community.

After Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be its last expo, the Mac community (and tech community at large) started speculating about the future of the event. Emerging from all this speculation is an interesting opportunity for Macworld to reinvent itself.

IDG announced during Macworld 2009 that Expo-only registration would be free. Already, more than 10,000 people have registered for the 2010 show.

Losing the largest show exhibitor does mean that the Expo floor will be scaled down. The Conference will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center West, while the Expo will be in the North Hall (rather than the North and South as in years past). I think scaling the Expo down is a good idea. It's easier to interact with fellow show-goers in one space. In this economy, scaling down just makes sense.

Paul emphasized that there will be a real focus on independent software developers. I think this is a good thing and that Macworld has a real opportunity to define itself as not only a Mac community Woodstock, but also as a place for developers to talk, discuss, learn and show-off their wares. With iPhone development as hot as it is, a stronger focus on that audience has real potential.

In the story of love, there is always a winner and a loser (the loser being the one who sits at home with ice cream in one hand and a remote in the other, crying while watching The Notebook). In the romance between IDG and Apple, it seems that IDG is not content to sit at home now that Stevie J. has stopped returning its calls.

While we know that Macworld Expo is scheduled to continue in 2010, there is not a solid sense of what next year's conference will look like. Because IDG wants to get attendee input on the future shape of the event, it has elected to have a "Townhall" open forum where attendees can meet and discuss the future of Macworld.

The emphasis of Macworld Expo is expected to shift back to the Mac and the many products and services that can enhance it. Because Macworld showcases hundreds of products that are not found in Apple retail stores (including sessions & vendors who focus on large enterprises and educational markets), it is a great opportunity to get them into the hands of users who would not normally get a chance to see them in person.

Here's hoping Macworld Expo continues on for the foreseeable future -- and who knows? Perhaps the popularity of Macworld will bring Apple back in, but who needs 'em, right? Have a good idea for something you'd like to see in Macworld's future? Let us know in the comments, and perhaps one of our intrepid staffers attending the townhall will discuss it with IDG's team.

For continuing coverage of Macworld Expo 2009 from our team on the ground in San Francisco, stay with TUAW -- you can see all coverage in one place, get a feed for our stories or follow us on Twitter for instant updates.

[via Ars Technica]

China Mobile, the service provider in talks with Apple to distribute the iPhone in the world's most populous country, is still expressing interest in selling the handset, but has plans to open its own online app store.

According to Macworld, Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile's chairman and CEO, said at a recent conference that "We will set up our own shop, and we hope, welcome all content providers to sell their software applications and games and songs and any other products in our application shop."

Cult of Mac's Ed Sutherland notes that Apple and China Mobile are still in talks to bring the handset to China, according to Wang.

Dan Nystedt of the IDG News Service speculated that China Mobile's app store would sell apps for Linux- and Symbian-based mobile phones, but it's unclear how this will affect China Mobile's burgeoning relationship with Apple.

Apple, of course, already has the iTunes store, which offers music, games and apps for the iPhone platform. China Mobile's store is unlikely to interfere technically with the iPhone/iTunes ecosystem, but it would compete financially with Apple's offering. Not that there's anything wrong with competition, of course.

An agreement with China Mobile would mean having the iPhone available to a market of 400 million existing subscribers, and perhaps millions more new subscribers. For comparison, the total population of the United States last year was just over 300 million people.

As if Apple's spotlight isn't large enough lately, it appears they stole some of CES's 15 minutes with the announcement of the iPhone. Forbes is reporting that Yoshi Yamada, CEO of Panasonic, left CES on Tuesday and traveled 600 miles to see Steve Jobs' iPhone-unveiling keynote (perhaps he knew he was going to get his money's worth?). Even though CES is filled to the brim with gadgets and gizmos, Apple's fanatically-anticipated iPhone may have upstaged most of them: as Yahoo's Christopher Null told Forbes, "[It] is unfortunate that people are trying to get the word out about their products, and they're one-upped by Steve Jobs."

Maybe CES will have better luck in 2008; we hear the CEA and IDG finally stopped playing phone tag and agreed on separate weeks for their respective festivals.

Some of you may recall my post about TUAW being refused a press pass to Macworld. Some thought it was appropriate, others thought I was whining, and still others applied the 'Fight Club' rule of press passes and said that since I talked about getting a press pass I didn't deserve to get a press pass. Sadly, we still don't have a press pass but IDG was nice enough to offer us a different kind of pass that gives us almost the same kind of access (thanks, IDG!).This means that TUAW will be out in force at Macworld (Laurie, Jan, Victor, and Damien (still finalizing his plans) will be there as well as yours truly) covering all the news, and perhaps making some news of our own. If you would like to schedule some time to meet with us about your product, invite us to your party, or just want a chance to meet a TUAW blogger in the flesh at the Maciest event of the season use our contact form and get in touch.