Just prior to the opening of the 2011 Macworld Expo , my colleague Christopher Breen and I mused that it would be interesting to bet all the iPad compositor’s case on display on the show trading floor .
After browsing just the first aisle and a one-half , my tally was 16 iPad case model , 23 iPhone cases , a smattering of iPod hint cases , four iPhone - battery cases , and a few iPad case with built - in keyboard or batteries . Keep in brain that these were just casemodels — most were available in a slew of colour or conception , putting the number of sheath thatlookeddifferent much , much higher .
At that point , I came upon theTrextabooth , which hostedhundredsof i - gadget coverings . When I asked a Trexta Commonwealth of Puerto Rico illustration how many different iPhone cases the company sell , I was greeted with a blank stare , a shrug , and a response that amounted to , “ We deal so many different models , even I ca n’t keep track . ” That ’s when I called off the count .
This would seem to give some credence to the complaint that the 2011 show storey wasoverrun with iPad subject . But that wail is just the 2011 variant of one we ’ve been hearing every year since 2003 or 2004 . First it was , “ There ’s nothing here but iPod cases . ” A few years ago , it shifted to , “ There ’s nothing here but iPhone cases . ” The only affair that ’s shift is the i - gadget father the most attending .
That ’s not to say the iPadwasn’ta dominant twist at the show . There were iPad event , skins , stands , battery charger , batteries , wall mounts , audio streamers , sieve defender , silver screen cleaners , plot controllers , travelling bag , clothing , and more . And , of course , attendees were able to check out iPad apps from a few 12 dissimilar developer . Which is all the more impressive when you consider the iPaddidn’t even exist a year ago .
But the Mac was also well - represented this year , especially on the software side . Fromcloud - based Time Machine backupstohome - video production , Windows virtualization todocument conversiontovideo converters , there was a lot of interesting new software package for our best-loved computer platform .
And , of course , we sawnew Mac - focused hard drivesandcompanies selling Mac upgrades , even if the show did n’t host a dozen booths selling discount RAM the way it did in years by . So the estimate that the 2011 show was nothing but iOS apps and accessories does n’t hold much water .
( Check out ourMacworld Expo 2011 Best of Show Awards . )
The other frequent matter of conversation at the show was the continued absence of Apple . But whereas last year it was a dark swarm hanging over everything — Would vendors and attendees come back ? Would the show survive?—this year it was understood that this is just The agency It ’s Going To Be .
And that ’s not inevitably a tough affair . For starters , as an attendant ( or , in my causa , as a member of the medium ) , the chances of discovering something nerveless or unique from a smaller vendor were much higher . visitant were able to spend more time checking out the smaller booths , rather than wait in line , ten deep , to see a new laptop they ’d be able to see a few days later at any Apple Store around the world .
On the vendor side , I talked to a good number of company who were warming to the approximation that , for them , the show actually might bebetterwithout Apple . At many of the “ Apple usher , ” a huge ball of show attendee were there mainly to see the ginormous Apple booth and , if they were favorable , a Steve Jobs keynote . Which intend with child crew at the show , but those crowd were filled with people who browsed other booths because they — the booths and the people — just happened to be there . For many smaller vendors , the best hope was to snag a few stragglers from Apple ’s wake .
Without Apple , the show is full of citizenry who are there specifically to see all those other booths ( and to learn from the excellentconference track ) without the genial phantasma of brand - Modern Apple gear . Vendors tell us that people at this twelvemonth ’s show ( and , to a lesser extent , last class ’s ) tended to be more interested in pick up about products , and were more likely to be possible customers , than the typical attender when Apple was present .
In little , meeter were there to see what ’s out there that’snotfrom Apple , and companies had a much good prospect of standing out from the crowd than when the show floor was dominated by Brobdingnagian booths from Apple , Adobe , Microsoft , and the like .
at long last , it was encouraging that the show was in reality bounteous this class than last twelvemonth , with a couple XII more vendors and several thousand square invertebrate foot of extra in - use floor space . And from a logistical head of sentiment , everyone I tattle to appreciated the fact that the total event was in a single edifice rather of having the show floor in one building , group discussion school term in another , and registration in a third .
As someone who ’s attended every Expo , save one , since the former nineties ( the exception necessitated by the Jobs - keynote - synchronized birthing of one of my children ) , I was n’t disappointed this class . There was a surprisingly wide range of vendors and products ; attendees seemed to be take a great time ; and without new Apple merchandise to madly cover , I got to commit more prison term babble with the smaller vendors that help make the Mac platform what it is . I also got to spend more clip enjoy the company of people — both industry colleagues and Macworld readers — I see only once a year .
I ’m looking forward to next class ’s Macworld show . Apple still wo n’t be there , and the show ’s undoubtedly dissimilar for Apple ’s absence seizure , but for many of us , that ’s not all bad .
