Hi Steve,

I'm sorry to see Apple leave MacWorld Expo too. They've been edging out of this for quite awhile. There was that MacWorld New York/Boston fiasco, and now no MacWorld Paris and Japan. We knew that San Francisco was not far behind.

Some people say that conventions and show booths are "so 20th century" (although 10 will get you 20, that Apple participates more with the CES shows in Las Vegas). Also, since Apple now has a growing number of Apple retail stores, it's no longer necessary for them to get the word out about their products with keynote speeches at MacWorld. They're right there at the mall to look at. Finally, Apple is more about the iPod and iPhone now, and less about the Macintosh computer.

The Macintosh community/cult that kept the Macintosh platform alive during the hard times, who would go to these shows, were able to get reinvigorated by the keynotes. I know that it's expensive and time consuming, but MacWorld was mostly for the Macintosh community and I'm really sorry to see that go away.