Thanks, Lee, for an interesting and insightful piece. Harry
Saturday, December 20, 20085:19 PMLee [email protected] >On Dec 18, at 11:36 AM, Tom Guenthner wrote: > >> Apple has announced that its 2009 appearance at the Macworld Expo in >> San Francisco will be its last. It has also revealed that there will >> be no keynote address from Steve Jobs. > >A few days ago I read Apple's announcement and I've been brooding over >it ever since. > >Back when I was still writing software reviews for computer magazines >and a regular column for the now dead Louisville Computer News, I'd >finagle a press pass to MacWorld and spend some time among the Mac >faithful. A couple of days wandering the aisles and attending tech >sessions could tell you more about what was really going on with Mac >software than a whole year of reading at home. > >But, to many, MacWorld is more than a trade show. The faithful show >up. To them, Apple is more than just another huge company trying to >plug itself into their wallets. The show is like a rock music >festival. You can wander the aisles and see the person with the Apple >logo carved into his hair or the woman dressed like an old bondi blue >iMac. (Remember: this is San Francisco.) Whole user groups from Japan >or Denmark or Britain move in packs, easily identified by their >matching T-shirts. Hundreds of vendors vie to catch your eye with >outrageous booths--huge ones from Apple, Adobe, Symantec and even >Microsoft--small ones from BareBones, Wolfram, SmileOnMyMac and >uncounted others. It is a carnival. The motion, lights, noise and >confusion are a kaleidoscope. > >The rock star at the center of the whole thing is Steve Jobs, and his >keynote is treated like a Stones concert. I've seen several >Stevenotes, and they were all pretty much the same. There are two >lines: one for the unwashed masses and another for the lucky horde >with press passes. Since there are only a few thousand seats, >commoners start queueing well before 6:00 and anyone entering the line >after 7:30 won't get in. The exalted ones with press passes start >drifting in at 7:30 or so. The wait is like a big party with MacBooks >and iPods. > >The doors open at 8:45. > >There we sit with loud 70s rock music filling the dimly-lit room. A >twenty-foot screen is in front of us with nothing on it but a huge >Apple logo. Anticipation pervades. > >Suddenly the music stops. Thousands wait with bated breath. Just as >casual as you please, Steve Jobs saunters onto the stage and says, "We >have a lot of things to show you." > >It's hard to describe the atmosphere in the room. Jobs is the master >of the product rollout. He's the superstar. The audience wants to hear >him and he feeds off the audience. The only time I've ever felt >anything like it was at a few rock concerts: Simon & Garfunkel when I >was in high school; Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash when I was in college. >Charisma. Electric. It's been said that Jobs creates a "reality >distortion field." Although they try hard not to show it, it's clear >that even the old-time tech reporters are swept up. > >You can't get this feeling watching the QuickTime replay on the Web. >The replay is good, but it's not amazing. I suppose it's the audience, >the expectation and the ambience of the place and the time. The flaws >in the gadgets and the limitations of the software are invisible in >the reality distortion field, but become ever more apparent as time >and distance weaken the effect. It's one of those times when you >really have to be there to understand. > >So now there will be no more MacWorld Stevenotes. I think this will be >the death of the show. Without Apple to anchor the main floor and >without all the speculation about that amazing "one more thing" at the >Stevenote, the press will be able to ignore the whole thing. When the >press leaves, the exhibitors won't be able to justify the ever growing >cost of a booth. > >It seems it was inevitable. Nearly all the other big technology shows >have vanished. COMDEX stopped in 2003. E3 drastically downsized in >2007. Even CES, the king of all the shows, was shortened by several >days in 2007 and has had much lower attendance. > >I've found myself thinking about that old song by The Buggles, Video >Killed the Radio Star. In this case it's The Internet Killed the Geek >Show. > > >_______________________________________________ >The next Louisville Computer Society meeting will >be January 27 at MacAuthority, 128 Breckinridge Lane. >Posting address: [email protected] >Information: http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup _______________________________________________ The next Louisville Computer Society meeting will be January 27 at MacAuthority, 128 Breckinridge Lane. Posting address: [email protected] Information: http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup
