Until January 2009, Apple was a mighty presence at the annual Macworld Expo. Held in San Francisco, the expo was a major tech event that Apple headlined. For many years, the technology world set its attention on the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas before turning its eyes to San Francisco a day or two later.
It was the Macworld Expo where Steven Jobs famously unveiled the first iPhone in 2007. But in the years before that industry-changing announcement, Apple has used the event to introduce everything from its LaserWriter printers to the Mac mini.
The Apple TV was finally given an offical name (speculation was that it would be called the iTV, in line with the naming of the iBook, iPad, iPhone and iMac) at the 2007 event. It was somewhat overshadowed by the iPhone.
Apple withdrew from the Macworld Expo in 2009 with the event closing for the last time five years later. Losing Apple from the conference pushed organisers to moving the event about a month later, into late January and early February – presumably to avoid being swamped in the news by CES, which by them was a massive city-wide event attracting well over 100,000 attendees to Las Vegas.
This week, CES kicks off with hundreds of companies revealing their product roadmaps and new tech that we’ll be getting our hands on over the next year or so. And while there will be products that will be of interest to those of us living and working in the Apple ecosystem, the excitement won’t be the same.
While products like the very funky Govee lighting systems, Australian display company Espresso’s latest screens, and new accessories from Belkin are being announced, the excitement level is just not the same.
There was a real sense of anticipation as we all wondered what Apple would announce. I imagine that if the Macworld Expo was still running and Apple was part of it that the Vision Pro would have been announced there. Or perhaps the new, M4-powered Mac mini.
These days, Apple most product releases are iterative. We get a new processor in the computing products each year and we all know a new iPhone is being announced in September. Most other products are updated in a more ad hoc manner. There’s no real ‘big bang’ event we can get really excited about.
The Macworld Expo was great way to launch the year. It generated great hype and excitement about what the year would bring for those who love their Apple products. I miss it.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.