CES starts this week. Macworld starts on the 27th. Apple will not be present at either. Neither will they be at the Macworld Expo in London in the fall. Years ago, Apple left the Macworld Expos in Boston, New York, Paris and others. Historically many great announcements have been made at these shows. The iPhone, at Macworld San Francisco in 2007. The infamous Microsoft Deal at Macworld Boston in 1997, the birth of the Apple Retail Stores at Macworld New York in 2001. Yet one by one, Apple has left all of these trade shows, many of which have since perished. The culmination of this exodus was the final, Steve Jobs-less keynote at Macworld San Francisco in 2009. The show has gone on to flourish without Apple, a feat many other shows could not duplicate.
One question - why? Why did Apple leave?
For (relatively) very little money, an entrance at a trade show generates enthusiasm and publicity for a company, while giving it the chance to showcase its products and interact with consumers and journalists alike. To most companies, the choice is a no-brainer, but for Apple, it is far more complex. Apple is a very special company in that they don't need to generate enthusiasm, or publicity, because the press and their fans (often one and the same), will do it for them. For free.
When Apple needs to announce a new product, they hold an announcement of their own - they make you come to them (if you're lucky enough to be invited), not the other way around.
If anything, Apple probably gets more publicity from not being at the show than from being there. People, like me, spend so much time bemoaning or analysing their absence that they become a popular topic of discussion, without ever having to spend a cent.
Their absence enhances their carefully cultivated walled garden of secrecy, which also serves to generate interest, merely because of curiosity about the unknown.
