In a sad turn of events, Apple recently announced that, as a company, they would no longer be a primary sponsor of MacWorld, the annual Mac enthusiast gathering and trade show. Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at each MacWorld had become a popular and exciting tradition both for Apple, Mac enthusiasts everywhere, Wall Street and even the whole of the mainstream media. After all, Steve almost always managed to deliver a bombshell of a product (although, to be fair, the product was rarely a surprise by the time the keynote rolled around).
While Apple will still attend the upcoming MacWorld Expo in early 2009, Phil Schiller will be delivering the keynote instead of Steve Jobs. Apple fans will recognize Schiller — he’s been on the stage for major keynotes and presentations before. It was Schiller who awkwardly presented the MobileMe platform, which later turned out to be a huge stumbling block for Apple due to a mismanaged rollout and massive technical problems. For better or for worse, we all need to get used to seeing good ‘ole Phil on stage.
What is unclear in this whole situation is why Apple made this decision. Some say it’s because Apple doesn’t need MacWorld. Some say it’s because Apple wants to manage its own product rollouts and timelines as opposed to being “forced” to make a groundbreaking product release in the first quarter of each calendar year. And lastly, some say it’s because of Steve Jobs’ apparently deteriorating health. We at Mac Poker are unsure as to why this decision was made, but we here feel sad to know that we will no longer see Steve Jobs on the stage at MacWorld. It was fun while it lasted.
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