The recent announcement that Apple will no longer be attending the MacWorld Expo after this year is yet another blow to the electronic event community. It seems these large scale events are becoming less and less of a priority to the companies that attend them. Even the large scale venue Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has toned down its yearly event. The reasons for this are varied and many.
As with many things, it boils down to money. These events are lavish, costing the companies millions in return for a momentary spotlight on new products. However, that spotlight has been dimming.
Many online buyers neither know of nor care about these extravaganzas. Indeed, the average consumer finds out about new products primarily through advertising and word of mouth.
The other part of the problem is the products themselves. A company that is a main attendee to a large event is beholden to its time schedule. There lies the problem. People go to these venues expecting new products, expecting something fun and new. This in turn holds the company to release something fun and new each time it attends this event, constricting it to the time table of the event rather than its own independent time table. It is for this reason, more than any other I believe that these large scale events are disappearing.
A company that holds itself to someone else’s time table has a problem. I believe it is why Apple is no longer attending the MacWorld Expo. How many updates can they bring to the I-Pod every single year? Soon enough the little handheld will be a full- blown computer, something the I-Pod touch is already leaning towards.
While many attendees will most likely be crushed at Apple’s disappearance, in the long run the move is beneficial to the company and most likely going to be beneficial to those who love new products. It gives Apple the freedom to release when it pleases, which will (hopefully) be larger, exciting releases. Anyone who has followed Apple lately knows that some of its announcements have been less than exciting.