Comments on: Macworld of the future: Music, pros, schwag

There's definitely a core group of Macworld attendees that want to preserve the show without Apple. But getting consensus on a strategy could be difficult.

[dascha1]

Ah... brings back a certain memory really. It was +/- 1987. I asked my local mac dealer to show me the speech recognition. She walked me over, clicked the mouse, and said "Computer. What time is it?". The mac replied accurately (or at least the time I saw on the monitor). She asked me if I wanted to try and I did. I didn't move standing somewhat back from the computer and said the same thing. It replied with a "didn't understand" response. She told me to get closer to the microphone. So, I did, the same thing happened again. I finally got it to work on the 4th or 5th attempt, it was cool. Then I asked her what it meant to Apple in terms of using it for things. She admitted "Accessibility, it's the future". Then I headed back to my JMU campus to think about the value of that experience.

[Penguinisto]

Well, this Mac user has but one thing to say about the thing:

Good riddance.

No, seriously - unless it has something useful in it (like workshops that aren't thinly disguised advertisements), what's the point?

Now if you already live in Silly Valley, hey, go for it. The rest of us can't quite justify the time and expense (at least and do so honestly). Then again, the same goes for most other trade shows (like CES nowadays...)

[Mil Mascaras]

SWAG = Stuff we always give or Stuff We Give Away or whatever.
SCHWAG = Low quality Marijuana.

Interesting choice of headlines !

[MacLawyer]

The reality is that Apple cannot communicate with its business customer base at the retail stores. I'm a partner in a law firm that switched over to Macs 4-1/2 years ago. We initially made a large purchase of machines, and then again last year bought new machines to replace the older ones. The "business" sales staff at our local Walnut Creek store was a joke. Some 19-year old kid without a clue as to how to deal with business people with respect to our hardware or software requests. While I love going to the Apple store for myself personally, I cringe every time I have to deal with the store on a business level. MacWorld has always offered me the opportunity to deal with intelligent, knowledgeable and professional people ? manufacturers, developers, etc. -- that I have no other way of connecting with outside of the show. It would be a tragedy for MacWorld to die off and leave us business customers even more frustrated than we currently are.