First, Apple announced that after 2009, the company would no longer exhibit at Macworld Expo, the annual trade show-slash-revival meeting of the Mac faithful that took place right after New Years in San Francisco.
Steve Jobs’ keynotes at Expo were legendary.
Then, IDG World Expo General Manager Paul Kent, who headed up the conference, decided to host a different kind of annual confab in 2010 called Macworld/iWorld, with an emphasis on the Apple mobile market. While MW/IW struggled at first, it seemed to be gaining some traction over time. But evidently not enough. And now, it too, is going away — at least for the upcoming year.
Said Kent in a statement this morning: “We are announcing today that Macworld/iWorld is going on hiatus, and will not be taking place as planned in 2015.”
IDG’s MacIT conference, targeted to Apple in the enterprise, will continue next year with details to be announced in the coming weeks, Kent said.
Over the years, Macworld/iWorld took on more of a community character, much like when the Expo started in 1985, by many accounts. It never regained the cachet and international draw that it had when Apple was the headliner of course, but over time, many vendors nationwide, and even internationally, started to return to the show floor, alongside new participants. Vendors from Ukraine formulated a sizable contingent at this year’s show, for example.
Will IDG fire up the conference again? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t lay odds on it. Apple is now coming into its own in the business and enterprise arena, and that is where any Apple trade show will likely concentrate for the future.
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