Apple executives have confirmed that the company is pulling the plug on eWorld on March 31. Subscribers will reportedly be turned away starting today.
Last fall, Apple had announced that it would transform eWorld from a proprietary online service into a Web site. Now, eWorld will disappear altogether as a branded service and in its place Apple will greatly expand its presence on the Web.
The announcement isn't a surprise to industry followers. "eWorld never caught momentum," said Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter. "It was clearly a stepchild of AOL and it was Macintosh only. It tried to compete with the general marketing demands of an AOL, instead of exclusively focusing on Mac customers. There was just not a whole lot of reason to go with eWorld."
