Macworld Expo: Day 2 – A Tale of Two Expos

We were standing in line in the Macworld Media Room, waiting for our (free) lunch. “Four kinds of sandwiches?” said the man next to me. “Well, at least that’ll give us something interesting to talk about after this morning’s keynote.”

Ouch. And yet, he had a point. If Apple wanted to not only end their association with their largest trade show, but also made sure that nobody was hyped about it for next year, then they definitely decided to go out with a whimper. Indeed, after a to-be-expected 17″ Macbook Pro, the most exciting announcement was photo tagging, something that’s been available on popular social media sites for quite some time. DRM-free iTunes is good news, but Apple’s sold millions of songs with Fairplay, so it seems obvious that to the majority of people, it doesn’t really matter.

But walking around the show floor today, you’d be hard pressed to describe the mood as “glum.” Yes, this is the last Macworld with Apple’s presence, but Apple itself is a stronger company than ever. Makers of accessories, especially for iPhone and iPod, but also for the Macbook line, are out in force and hawking lines of colorful, fashionable cases. For the iPhone/iPod crowd, it’s easy to imagine that if/when Macworld Expo folds, they’ll just move over to CES—you don’t have to belong to the Cult of Mac to lust after an iPhone. It’s a gadget, not a way of life.

And that’s the weird nature of this Macworld Expo; nobody’s worried that Apple is going to go under—they’ve got billions of dollars in the bank, their market share is in double digits for the first time in…well, ever, and the iPhone is the hot gadget with the iPod running a close second. But while we may love Apple, Apple doesn’t have to love us back.

If there is a note of frustration, it’s coming from application developers. On the Mac side, it’s Apple’s abandonment of the largest trade show, and one less chance for companies who are still producing software for the Mac to connect with the press and the public. On the iPhone side, it’s with Apple draconian and secretive approval process. People are finally chomping at the bit to produce software for an Apple product, and now Apple is trying to clamp down on the process. Meanwhile, the people who don’t need Apple’s approval are struggling to get the word out to the audience. It’s a Topsy-Turvy world.

In fact, I’m almost ready to call this Macworld a point upgrade Expo: I’ve yet to see anything really astonishing, something that’s going to shake up the Mac foundation, but there are a lot of familiar companies offering good upgrades to existing products, the most notable of which is Microsoft, who were demoing a slew of betas that I’ll be covering later in the week. Everyone else is trying to figure out how to get their programs onto the iPhone.

Day 2 Swag

An iPod touch case from Speck (not technically swag, as it’s an item for review), and another flash drive (1GB) given when I asked for a press release: it’s getting to the point now where flash drives are cheaper than paper, I guess. The lanyard itself is a thing of beauty: woven cloth with a satin feel and a quick-release strap. I feel like I could haul an engine block out of a car with this thing.