South of Market Street. Actually three holes. North, South and West Halls. That’s the Moscone Center here in San Francisco.
In previous years, the North and South Halls were stuffed to the rafters with all kinds of opportunities to explore every thing Mac. However, with the bust of the dot com boom, there are plenty of wide-open spaces. The Expo folks do their best to make it look otherwise, but reality has intruded none the less.
We were wowed on Tuesday during the Keynote address by Steve Jobs, with the new applications (specifically the new web browser, Safari, and the presentation software, Keynote) and then by the new 17-inch and 12-inch Powerbook laptops. Chuck and I both want one of the former.
Here’s a link to the Apple home page with views and info of both. Way cool… (By the way, you can check out the official Macworld Expo site too.)
There were all kinds of new versions of this and that. The latest upgrades, and the like were all the rage. There may be more to say in what we didn’t see. Missing was the new must have. Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle may have it best when describing the Consumer Electronics Show where the headline is “Makeovers of older products, not gee whiz newcomers, are stars.”What was true in Las Vegas, seems to be true here as well.
That said…
As much as I lust after the new toys, I’m the first to admit that there is simply a lack of innovation. Steve Jobs made that a word to focus on, but at Macworld, I really did not find anything new that could fall into that category.
The Apple pavilion was full of folks waiting to touch, fondle and explore all of the new toys and applications for most of the day. The view below shows it just before the end of the show on Wednesday.
Photo by Roger Colton
On the whole, if you were just the average guy or gal, and not a Mac enthusiast, I’m just not sure you would be tempted to stretch your credit limit based on what you saw. Flip to the other side of the coin, and if you’re the kind who can’t get enough of the latest toys and gadgets, you were somewhat annoyed that you were going to have to wait till next month for that 17-inch Powerbook.
Last year, it was the new iMac with its snowball base and flat panel screen. Before that it was the iPod and all the music you can listen to for the hours of the day.
Not that I’m an ungrateful wretch… but as the immortal Clara Peller once put it, “Where’s the beef?”or as her fellow thespians said, “My! It certainly is a great big fluffy bun!”
If Apple can be satisfied with the five percent market share, I guess I can, too.
Perhaps I’ll just add it to the list of things to see next year. Like Star Wars – Episode III, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and a kick ass must-have from Apple.
As Roger writes this piece, he’s headed home from a short day at Macworld. But, not without a share of goodies. Kudos to the folks with Font Reserve and the little blinky blue light pendants for this years neatest give-away.
Now if he can only win the drawing for either the Mini or the Hummer H2…
Macworld New York will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City on July 14 – 18, 2003. Macworld San Francisco is scheduled for January, 2004. He’s sure he will be there, along with the rest of the faithful.