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Apple Won't Be At Macworld Boston
analog_line writes "Apple apparently is none too pleased about the decision to move Macworld to Boston from New York in 2004. So much so that they have said that they 'will not be participating in Macworld Boston.' They are also considering pulling out of Macworld New York 2003, though they say they will be at Macworld San Francisco."
Can you blame them given current (well, the past 5-10 years :-) traffic conditions in downtown Boston?
www.christopherlewis.com
From the article:
Following Apple's statement, an IDG World Expo representative said the company had no indication from Apple that the Mac maker would pull out of the show if it was moved to Boston.
Seriously, when you're doing *MAC*World, and making a major change, you'd think they'd ask Apple what they thought.
If Apple pulls out, there will still be a draw, but it will be so greatly diminished. IDG will have a hard time breaking even without all the people who would have initially come if Apple were there. There goes the free publicity/great PR/chance to get feedback from the maccies. Fairly ignorant decision on Apple's part.
Couldn't apple and macworld have communicated about this, like, a little earlier?
Macworld must realize that the only people go to the macworld expos anymore is that apple's gotten into the habit of practically never announcing new hardware or operating system upgrades except at macworld expos. Macworld probably should have somehow figured out before now that apple was going to leave if they moved to boston, or at least apple should have piped up a bit earlier to macworld about their unwillingness to work with Boston. Someone, somewhere, wasn't thinking very clearly. Who's going to want to go to the macworld expo if Apple isn't there? Will anyone? Especially if it's in Boston. ^_^
(Just checking: where are hotels more expensive, Boston or NY?)
MacWorld reports:
By only participating in one MacWorld per year they alliviate some of these problems.
I am not saying that I think Apple will go to a year long product release cycle, I just think they are actively fighting the pre-MacWorld sales problem. I also think Apple will continue with the recent trend of releasing more and more products out of the MacWorld cycle.
It moved a whole 2-hour drive away (and I doubt most attendees would drive anyway), and they pull a prima-donna hissy fit?
Damn.
Apple - Grow up. You have an immensely loyal user base, yet treat them like dirt. You abuse the community that gives you free development, you actively squash fan-motivated derivative works, you charge 2-3x as much as for comparable intel-based hardware, you engage in disgusting political maneuverings to squash (or obviate) bad press and speculation... Basically, you act just like Micro$oft, except lack the monopoly to pull it off.
Then you wonder why, with what I think most people would agree counts as a far superior OS to Windows, you have such a pitiful share of the desktop market.
Free clue - reward loyaly, ignore bad press (unless it deals with security issues, one of MS's bigger mistakes), and don't throw a tantrum whenever things don't go 100% your way. Oh, and try selling your hardware for reasonably competitive prices.
Apple has very little in the way of new products to announce for a while. Sure, there will be a PowerBook revamp soon, but let's face it, until a new PowerPC chip comes out, Apple basically has nothing that exciting to introduce. Sure, there'll be a new iApp or two, maybe some bigger monitors, or minor speed increases in existing lines, but that's hardly a very big deal.
People make such a big deal out of keynotes since Jobs came back that when there isn't anything big to introduce, there is a decent amount of bitterness in the Mac community. Jobs does not want to be in the position of creating bitterness by giving more keynotes with nothing to introduce.
Jobs has been trying to break the connection of product announcements with keynote speeches anyway. When everyone expects there to be big introductions at the keynote, people stop buying Macs before the keynotes, in case a product line is refreshed. This makes it hard for Apple to clear out inventory - why buy an iMac in June if you think a new one will be introduced in July?
MacWorld shows may no longer be as important as they used to be, anyway. Most hard-core Mac users - the kind who would pay for a ticket to the keynote, or pay to travel to New York/Boston - have Internet access and read MacCentral, MacRumors, etc. So it's not like Apple needs the convention to reach these people. Besides, this audience is basically loyal to Apple regardless of what Apple does. On the other hand, Apple does want very badly to attract new users - the switchers. The money spent attending MacWorlds may be better spent on more TV ads targetting PC users.
So the convention is held in a different city.
*WHY* is Apple having such an immature hissy-fit.
Let's see, valid reasons for Boston:
Apparently, tradition. Until 1998, Boston is where MW Expo was held for 12 years in a row
Cost - Boston has offered some pretty serious discounts on the cost of renting their convention center for this show
Valid reasons for disliking a move to Boston:
None that I can think of. Apple hasn't given a *SINGLE* reason for their desire to stay in New York.
If Apple was based in the NYC area, I could understand it... But once you're crossing from the West Coast to the East Coast, who cares if you're going 200 or so extra miles? The difference in travel cost is negligible, especially considering the cost of actually hosting the show will apparently be far less in Boston.
I'm forced to agree with the guy who got marked down to -1 Flamebait for making the comment about Steve Jobs and a baby bottle. This decision by Apple is stupid, immature, and nonsensical (especially given Apple's financial state...)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
My two cents.
MacWorld was way cool back when I was in college, we went every year, it was a blast. But that was 1992. Now we have the "internet" and MacWorld is pretty muh useless except for the KeyNote product release movie. Fuck it, just broadcast a Quicktime movie of Jobs and let people download the same demos they would get at the show. Hell from what I hear nobody even gives out free t shirts anymore. Why bother?
-- Steal Me --
Wha...? Do you really feel wronged by this decision? Personally hurt?
You abuse the community that gives you free development, you actively squash fan-motivated derivative works, you charge 2-3x as much as for comparable intel-based hardware, you engage in disgusting political maneuverings to squash (or obviate) bad press and speculation... Basically, you act just like Micro$oft, except lack the monopoly to pull it off.
You set 'em up, I'll knock 'em down.
People who really feel that they are being treated like dirt do not stay immensely loyal.
There's no abuse of their open source ties. If you think there is, prove it.
Actively squashing fan-motivated derivative works... ok look, they were the victim of the biggest UI ripoff in history. I don't really agree with their tactics but wouldn't you be a little touchy? After what MS did?
@-3 times the price... blahdefuckinblah. Old hat, not true, move on.
I actually would really like to hear about the 'disgusting political maneuverings' as I have no idea to what you could possibly be referring. Are they sending letters from dead people? Do they outright lie?
and don't throw a tantrum whenever things don't go 100% your way
I could not have put that better myself.
The $45 million dollar loss that people keep linking to comes from one-time charges, mostly Apple writing off investments--and when you have over $4 billion in the bank, losing $45 million is nothing. Had they not taken the write downs, they would have had an expected profit this last quarter.
This has NOTHING to do with hissy fits and everything to do with:
a)Not looking like they are abandoning NYC.
b)Apple knows that when they are in NYC, they have the ear of the media. Moving to Boston is not in their interest as they will get less ink.
c)When those costs are figured, suddenly it seems like an excuse to get out of/cut down on the Expos.
d)Wean people off of the Expo release/disappointment death cycle, which screws up their product flow.
e)Concentrate their money not on the Mac Geek Faithful but instead on Regular Folks Who Might Switch.
You look at all this, and it's a slam dunk...it's too good an opportunity to pass up.
Possibility: maybe Apple will take the money it saves and instead go to PCExpo, and make a stand for the Mac there. I can imagine this happening, as they'd get lots of press for showing up and would strengthen their committment to expanding the base.
Then why aren't they joining the likes of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas?
You want "flashy splash", NYC isn't the place to go - It's all about Vegas.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Or this is their plan and IDG's move is convenient and works well for them. Either way.
I like how people assume that those in charge of Apple have absolutely no business sense. While that may have been true in the past, and Steve's track record is a little spotty (anyone remember NeXT's marketing plan? Right.), they're doing pretty damned well for themselves.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Uh, no. Methinks you're confusing percentage of sales with percentage of installed base. Macs tend to have longer lifetimes than PCs, which means that their percentage of the installed base is larger than their percentage of sales.
I use to work for a printing company and anytime we had to deleiver to Javitt center, our truck driver had to to bribe at least 2 people in order to get anything unloaded within 3 hours of arrival. The union contracts also forbid drivers from doing unloading themselves. This is only one aspect of the place, I'm sure there are plenty more reasons for moving to Boston.
Apple has been looking down upon Macworld NY for a while now. Disliking the move to Boston is simply an excuse for Apple to back out of MacWorld NY without looking like a jerk.
I would imagine that it is hard to "wow" folks on a set date every six months. People expect to get blown away by a Jobs keynote, however, that's kind of hard to do when a product isn't quite ready or a when a product is ready for sale months before Macworld.
Apple really been having a hard time syncing up with MacWorld dates during the past year so. MacWorld keynote have been fairly week, and Apple has been announcing and releasing a lot of products at "Apple Events," which they can schedule at any given time.
It'll probably be a hell of a lot easier for Apple to wow folks once a year at a set time, and at random Apple expos the rest of the time. But, nevertheless, it sure does look bad for Apple to back out of a huuuuuge trade show dedicated to them. At the very least they could show up and release a press release telling people not to expect new Apple hardware/software at they show. I think Apple should stick with Macworld, however they should inform their users, the press, and investors to concentrate on Apple events... not MacWorld expos.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Sure, there will be a PowerBook revamp soon, but let's face it, until a new PowerPC chip comes out, Apple basically has nothing that exciting to introduce
If you're addicted to CPUs, I guess. Most of the interesting stuff coming out of Apple has nothing to do with processors.
- Scott
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
* First, as others have stated, NYC is both the media and financial centers of the USA if not the world. This exposure is something that Boston simply cannot provide. (I love Boston as a city and personally can't stand the Javits Center, but Apple's not going to do a trade show just because it's more convenient to do so -- they want to see the $$$.)
* Second, Apple has just dropped a TON of cash into their "flagship" Apple store in NYC's SoHo (and continue to do so given the rents in that area.) The revenue lost from not having that week's income would be significant (not back-breaking, but it would seriously hamper the SoHo store's profitability.) For Apple SoHo, MWNY week is better than Christmas. I'm sure Apple's financial projections for this store included more than just two MWNYs. If the show's in Boston, what are they going to do, pack everybody into the CambridgeSide Galleria? More likely a lot of those sales will be lost to MicroCenter and the like or just simply lost.
--
Personally, I always thought the old Boston shows were much better than anything NY has produced so far -- I've been to three shows in each. The attendees in Boston seemed younger and more excited to be there rather than the more jaded professionals in the NY crowd. From a user's perspective, I'd love to see MW back in Boston, but from Apple's financial perspective, it doesn't make as much sense as NY does.
Why Apple didn't express this opinion BEFORE the deal was complete is a real head-scratcher, though. Perhaps they were just looking for a way to drop a second US show entirely without looking like the bad guy. IDG just gave them the excuse they needed.