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Friday, December 19, 2008
Apple pulls from MacWorld
So, it's finally hapened. Apple have announced that they will no longer be exhibiting at MacWorld.
Apple's participation at the IDC-owned MacWorld has always sat - somewhat uneasily one might say - somewhere between trying to turn the event into a vendor-owned in-house promotional tool designed to serve a specific role in Apple's ongoing product launch strategy, and a "genuine" trade show where suppliers and buyers operating in the "Mac" ecosystem get together in an environment designed to allow them all to do the most business.
These two types of event are quite different - and so trying to fit them together in one show always needed a degree of compromise to make it work.
Clearly Apple now feel that their product development strategy and product launch cycle would be better served without tying themselves into a relatively fixed set of dates and venues and sharing the limelight with other companies who operate in (or on the margins of) their "Mac ecosystem" - but that's their decision to make.
I'd also suggest that Apples shift to getting more of their revenues from ipod/iphone is another factor here. The Mac computer needed to stimulate a large, diverse and vibrant 3rd party developer and peripherals market in order to be succesful, so Apple needed a show to help make that "ecosystem" grow and flourish. No 3rd party software and peripherals and the business model of their main/only product line suddenly becomes fatally flawed.
But now, the ipod & iphone are core product to Apple. Yes, the ipod also has lots of add-ons and peripherals, but I can't see Apple really caring that much if there are 2 or 200 different manufacturers of day-glo neoprene skins for iphone. The "ipod" ecosystem is much more simple, lower value, not vital to the core product and available in a high street near you for $4.99 retail. So who needs a show for that?
This decision looks to me like the right one for Apple based on their current positioning and strategy, and Apple are a company which has an almost unique relationship to "their" tradeshow - even though they don't own it. They are also fairly unique in having a substantial global retail presence in which their prducts and brand are promoted in high profile fashion. But their decision to pull macWorld is not a pointer to IT trade shows, or to shows generally.
The one thing it does do is say Apple is perhaps cutting adrift its support for the "Mac" ecosystem - but that's a discussion for another blog, not a Trade Show one.
Apple's participation at the IDC-owned MacWorld has always sat - somewhat uneasily one might say - somewhere between trying to turn the event into a vendor-owned in-house promotional tool designed to serve a specific role in Apple's ongoing product launch strategy, and a "genuine" trade show where suppliers and buyers operating in the "Mac" ecosystem get together in an environment designed to allow them all to do the most business.
These two types of event are quite different - and so trying to fit them together in one show always needed a degree of compromise to make it work.
Clearly Apple now feel that their product development strategy and product launch cycle would be better served without tying themselves into a relatively fixed set of dates and venues and sharing the limelight with other companies who operate in (or on the margins of) their "Mac ecosystem" - but that's their decision to make.
I'd also suggest that Apples shift to getting more of their revenues from ipod/iphone is another factor here. The Mac computer needed to stimulate a large, diverse and vibrant 3rd party developer and peripherals market in order to be succesful, so Apple needed a show to help make that "ecosystem" grow and flourish. No 3rd party software and peripherals and the business model of their main/only product line suddenly becomes fatally flawed.
But now, the ipod & iphone are core product to Apple. Yes, the ipod also has lots of add-ons and peripherals, but I can't see Apple really caring that much if there are 2 or 200 different manufacturers of day-glo neoprene skins for iphone. The "ipod" ecosystem is much more simple, lower value, not vital to the core product and available in a high street near you for $4.99 retail. So who needs a show for that?
This decision looks to me like the right one for Apple based on their current positioning and strategy, and Apple are a company which has an almost unique relationship to "their" tradeshow - even though they don't own it. They are also fairly unique in having a substantial global retail presence in which their prducts and brand are promoted in high profile fashion. But their decision to pull macWorld is not a pointer to IT trade shows, or to shows generally.
The one thing it does do is say Apple is perhaps cutting adrift its support for the "Mac" ecosystem - but that's a discussion for another blog, not a Trade Show one.
Labels: apple, apple pull out macworld, macworld, steve jobs
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