Back in pre-history when I started writing about technology, that is to say the 1980s, trade shows were the place to find out what going on. My how things have changed. Brainshare, Novell’s big show, has been canned. Steve Jobs isn’t showing up for Macworld, and Apple is pulling out of the show next year.
Well, they say they won’t be there, but without Apple I’d be amazed if there was a Macworld for Apple not to attend.
I’ve seen this coming from years down the road. In 1999 and 2000, Comdex, which was the techie trade show had more than 200,000 attendees. It was a city within the city of Las Vegas. The Comdex shows were where Bill Gates introduced Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP. It was the show where Microsoft Windows became Windows the force. And, in spring 1999, when Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates virtually faced off with each other at Comdex, it was, in many ways, Linux’s coming of age. By 2004, Comdex was dead.