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Apple's devoted users are already mourning the demise of the Macworld expo, even as they make plans to attend the show this week in New York.
Without a "oh, and one more thing" product introduction from CEO Steve Jobs or festivities like last year's Soho Apple store opening, it's safe to assume that this week's show -- the last Macworld scheduled to be held in New York City -- will be a low-key event.
Some Big-Apple Apple addicts even fear that the show may have already gone the way of other much-mourned, now dead Mac icons like the happy-face Mac startup symbol.
"But there's always a chance that there will be one more wonderful thing," said Kevin Thompson, who has attended every Macworld expo since the first Boston show in August 1985.
"I'm going this year, but more out of a sense of Apple obligation than anything else," Thompson said. "Not going would be like not showing up at mom's for Thanksgiving dinner."
Macworld NYC, now dubbed the Macworld CreativePro Conference and Expo, will focus on hardware, software and skills for the creative artist. The show will feature 120 workshops on design and publishing, photography and imaging, video and audio.
The lineup of promised new product announcements doesn't provoke chills of anticipation, with some possible interesting exceptions: Pantone promises to ease the hell that is color profiling with ColorTone PrintFix, a hardware/software combo that creates accurate printer profiles for photographic inkjet printers. And LumiQuest says its automation application Ultra Image will take the drudgework out of boring graphics chores.
Also on the schedule: iDay 2003, a full-day digital-media seminar that will explore the potential of iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD.
With workshops like Secrets of the iTunes Music Store, iPhoto and Beyond: Organizing and Sharing Photos and "Understanding MP3, iDay looks like it's geared to the creative non-pro.
Macworld NYC got its new CreativePro moniker following a quarrel between show organizer IDG and Apple last fall.
IDG happily announced Macworld would be returning to Boston in 2004, Apple released a snarky statement about not wanting to go, and a press-release war ensued. The whole mess was semi-settled after a week or so when Apple agreed to show up for the 2003 shows in New York and San Francisco.
But this year marks the first Macworld conference without a Jobs keynote speech since he returned to Apple in 1997.
Greg Joswiak, aka "Joz," vice president of hardware product marketing at Apple, will deliver what IDG is referring to as the "opening feature presentation" on Wednesday morning.
Some subdued rumors are floating around newsgroups and websites suggesting that Joz will announce a G5 server and G5 PowerBook set to ship early in 2004, with G5 iMacs to follow. But as of now, the only confirmed hardware treat is the promised first public display of the G5 Power Macs, introduced last month at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.
Besides' Joz's talk, Apple's only announced plans for the opening day of Macworld is a financial results conference call, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The company has announced that a webcast of the call will be available at Apple's website.
No information is available on the website about whether Joz's feature presentation will also be webcast, as Jobs' keynotes always were. Apple did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
"I'm going to miss getting morphed into the Jobs alternate time-space continuum," mourned Vince Tuchelle, an independent Apple support technician. Tuchelle's computer store closed last year, shortly after Apple opened its own store in the city.
"Jobs' keynote gave me a yearly taste of what it would be like to be a cult member," Tuchelle said. "It was like safe lunacy -- you could get all worked up into a frothing lather over the leader's speech, then go right back to your normal life."
IDG reportedly hopes that Macworld CreativePro will draw at least half of the 58,000 or so people who attended last year.
"The best move for them would be to drop the 'Macworld' and make it a show for all digital artists, no matter what operating system they use," suggested Marty Cunnings, a Manhattan-based graphic artist.
"I know plenty of people who create good visuals, music and film on Windows and -- to a lesser extent -- Linux boxes. An inclusive computer arts show would have really drawn crowds in New York City."
Macworld CreativePro will take place July 14 to 18, at the Javits Center in New York City.
