ANTenna Blog -- Apple

What an in-your-face insult! Apple announced today that its appearance at the next Macworld Expo — Jan. 5-9 in San Francisco — will be its last.

For many years, Apple and IDG (which owns and produces the independent Macworld event) have argued about the conference, and Apple always keeps IDG dangling about its appearances and Steve Jobs' popular keynote. Sorry, no Steve Jobs this year.

Here's what Apple just put out:

CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

Talk about torpedoing your supporters: I'm sure that IDG, all the Mac hardware and software companies that sponsor Macworld, and all the loyal Mac users planning to attend in January, are just delighted about Apple's public dismissal of the value of the long-standing conference.