Editorial - Macrimination 
The Hollow Apple in the Big Apple
By Steve Sobek - Contributing Editor
There were many things missing at Macworld CreativePro Conference and
Expo this year, as compared to previous Macworld exhibitions held in the
Big Apple.
Adobe and Microsoft weren't there (at least they didn't have booths
on the exhibition floor). There were fewer exhibitors than in past
shows. In fact, I'm told the floor was only half as big. There was a
lack of excitement in the air. There was no new hardware from Apple,
other than the G5, which had already been announced last month in San
Francisco. None of us felt the famous "reality distortion field" these
events often exude.
Most of all -- and the value of this can't be underestimated -- there
was no Steve Jobs.
This was my first Macworld, and the trip was definitely worth it. I
got to see where some of Jobs' past keynotes had been given (the room is
much smaller than I thought it would be), I got to put some faces to
names I have known for quite awhile now in the Internet Mac community
and I got to be among the first to actually touch a G5.
No offense to Greg Joswiak, our keynote speaker, but he is not Stevie
J., and didn't quite have the master's flair. Not that it's his fault --
Stevie didn't give him much to work with. Joz introduced the audio
program mined from Final Cut Pro called Soundtrack and announced a
special deal to
convince Adobe Premiere users to switch to Apple's professional
video-editing solution. Not exactly the show Steve gave when he
introduced the flat-screen iMac last year. The keynotes I've watched via
QuickTime stream in the past definitely gave me more excitement than
what I witnessed this week in person in New York.
It didn't have to be this way. Macworld New York had originally been
held in Boston for many years until it moved to New York because of a
lack of space. IDG World Expo decided
to move the show back because New York was getting too expensive and
Boston had built a brand-new convention center that could handle the
show.
That's when the playground tussle erupted between IDG and Apple.
Apple gave a statement saying it would not participate in Macworld
Boston. "Since IDG is no longer investing in New York, we now need to
re-evaluate our participation in Macworld New York 2003. Apple will
continue to participate in Macworld San Francisco in January," the
company told Macworld.
IDG CEO Charlie Greco (who has since departed the company) later
said that Apple thought the company was becoming too powerful and
was just using the Boston move as an excuse to get out.
Whether that's true, I can't say. What is true is that the pared down
show that was eventually put together for this summer was a pale
reflection of past shows and only served to darken the image of the Mac
community at a time when we should be celebrating. The G5s will soon
ship. Panther is on the way. Things are very bright right now. But it
must not have seemed that way to outsiders attending this week's show or
covering it for the media.
Apple should have given us one last great party. Instead, they
quibbled with IDG and gave us a regurgitation of what was said in San
Francisco last month -- with no reality distortion field. The only
saving grace was not Soundtrack or the Final Cut Pro/Adobe Premiere
deal, but the G5, which was the undisputed Cinderella of the ball.
It's becoming quite obvious that Apple (and Stevie J.) prefers San
Francisco for its big parties. But at a time when Apple is pushing to
get switchers from the PC crowd, get more creative professionals to make
the jump from OS 9 to OS X and make inroads into the Enterprise with the
Xserve, it's not exactly wise to ignore the eastern half of the
country.
Steve Sobek is a journalist and Webmaster of United Mac. Reach him at ssobek@stevesobek.net.
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