It seems as if there has been a lot of news lately about Apple. Usually, this is a good thing. However, recently it seems as if most of this news is negative in one way or another. With health concerns, keynote absences, and cancellations, this can’t be good for Apple’s PR, especially during the holiday season. Although some of these items are bigger news than others, they are all important to the company.

Let’s make no mistake: No Stevenote and no Apple means that this is the last Macworld Expo. Ever.

Because while the Mac market share may be growing, the reason that people go to Macworld is to be a part of the group that heard Steve announce the next Insanely Great Product, to get their hands on them first (even if they couldn’t buy them for month), and—until Apple’s recent runaway success with the iPod—to take part in the group hallucination that was the Cult of Mac.

We might have known when…