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Jobs not to appear at Macworld 2009
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 18 December 2008
Apple have announced that top man Steve Jobs will not deliver the keynote address at the big Macworld conference in San Francisco next month. Macworld is traditionally the event where the computer firm makes some of its biggest product announcements, with Jobs’ keynote speech normally a highlight.
The news he won’t be there has revived those previously reported rumours that Jobs isn’t well – gossip which impacts on the IT firm’s share price because of a belief among the investment community that the CEO is one of the company’s biggest assets.
However, while the Macworld conference is specifically focused on the Mac (like the magazine it is essentially a spin off from), it is not an official Apple event, and the IT firm says that it plans to make less of a splash at the trade show in the future because it no longer considers it to be a key channel for reaching consumers. In fact Apple doesn’t anticipate being at the conference at all in 2010.
Next year’s Apple involvement will include a speech from the company’s VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller.
Asked for the reason behind Jobs’ decision not to appear at the convention, an Apple spokesman said this: “Phil is giving the keynote because this will be Apple’s last year at the show, and it doesn’t make sense for us to make a major investment in a trade show we’ll no longer be attending”.
As previously reported, concerns have been expressed for Jobs’ health in recent months, some referencing the pancreatic cancer he recovered from in 2004. Apple deny their top man is ill. Health issues may not be the only reason for Jobs to step back from his Macworld gig – some reckon it is just a sign that Apple haven’t got any ground breaking new products planned for 2009.
