Comments on: Apple's blind-side hit on IDG

Longtime Macworld sponsor IDG was caught completely off-guard when Apple announced that Steve Jobs would not be attending January's Macworld conference.

[jag0]

boo-hoo...get over it people. People who are "sad" need to get a life...seriously.

[McAdams]

You emotionless twit. >sob< How can you be so insensitive? >sob<

[SeizeCTRL]

oh no, what will we ever do without our beloved iJesus to bless us with next years i(insert product here)

[Cheese McBeese]

iJesus - brilliant! Ha ha ha ha ha!

C'mon everyone, get a life. It's a trade show!

[paulsecic]

Apple Ipooed

[Vegaman_Dan]

As IDG's Paul Kent was just on MacBreak Weekly, which I believe is recorded on Sundays, they still were promoting Apple's participation and possible subjects for Steve's keynote. Less than 48 hours later, it's over.

I think this isn't anythng that was just decided in that 48 hours. I do believe Apple had made this decision well before that point and had strung MacWorld along.

It is a shame that Apple would choose to this rather poor way to treat both MacWorld and Mac fans alike. They could have done this any number of ways to avoid this PR nightmare.

[gggg sssss]

same at NAB

[zato_3]

" IDG World Expo, a division of tech publishing giant IDG, had no reason not to expect Jobs would make his customary appearance at Macworld. Then came the word from Cupertino."

"had no reason not to expect..."
I think they had plenty of reason. They've expected this for years. Just look at some of the anti-Mac/Apple articles is many of their pubs.

[Ilgaz]

That is called actual, objective reporting. Why would anyone except fanatics bother with Apple apologising articles? PC World had many "Anti Microsoft" articles for many years too... Did MS "punish" them? No? That is why enterprise, business keeps using MS products no matter how better the others are.

[solitare_pax]

IDG - Oh, wait, they're the ones who publish magazines that are 100% advertising, from the paid ads to the press releases their hacks freshen up. Sorta like CNET.

No wonder Apple pulled out.

[sting7k]

Going on 13 articles now, give it a rest honestly. The same guy has writen 3 now on the same thing.

[sanenazok]

Can any company expect stability and transparency when dealing with Apple? Jobs is apparently too sick looking to make an appearance. How could this ever come as a surprise...Apple used MacWorld needing it then. It doesn't need it now so out it goes. I agree, this has been covered to death.

[myles taylor]

My gosh....they should just write a really long article about it. Can you say redundancy!?

[davidwb]

How about this for a scenario? Jobs and company had something new up their sleeve and had been intending to do the show as normal. Maybe this would be the last show, maybe not. But the economy continues to tank and Jobs begins to rethink launching this new product in the current economy putting a huge hole in the keynote. Maybe there were even several new products on tap making for an even bigger hole. Or maybe the new/refreshed products hit some last minute snags.

This scenario leaves Jobs to conduct a keynote that is little more than "here's what happened over the past year" and off go the pundits spinning a story about the lackluster keynote and Apple can't innovate any more. The stock, which always drops even when Jobs gives us a stunning 'one more thing' would really tank. So rather than deal with this, Jobs decides to give the keynote a pass and give it to someone else. But wait - that's going to fuel the 'Jobs is dying' speculation. So they pull out of the show early rather than later. Or not.

But here's the thing - I know no more than Mr Taylor here but my made up story won't create much in the way of click throughs, will it? Used to be Dvorak was the only click ***** - now every blogger is.

[gybognarjr]

Speculations again, and constantly, useless gossiping and bad . Why not post the news only, if no facts are known. This is called CNET News, not CNET Predictions.
Since when did it become the major job of magazine writers to be fortune tellers? Only since they have no desire to do a real job, write comprehensive analysis about software and hardware that is out there now! Buckle down and do some honest work or go and fantasize about Windows becoming intuitive. Now that will tie you all down for a few centuries.

[Synthmeister]

Apple ditching MacWorld is simply not that surprising.

1. Apple likes to control everything about Apple. Check
2. Apple can do an Apple Event at any time in Cupertino, and the press will rabidly attend, report, speculate, obfuscate, expectorate and bloviate about everything that takes place.
3. Apple likes to keep everything secret until products are ready to be sold. An artificial date to announce new products which may or may not be ready is at best, onerous.
4. WWDC. Apple has turned the WWDC into the yearly "State of Apple Forum."

Ten years ago, Apple needed IDG. Now with the internet, Apple stores, WWDC, iPhones, iTunes, Apple does not.


IDG is truly superfluous for Apple.