Microsoft books stall at Appule - the Mac expo stiffed by Apple

Microsoft has signed up for the Appule Personal and Professional User Live Expo, which Apple has so far snubbed.

The London-based trade show was to be called AppleExpo, until the organiser Indigo Media received legal letters from Apple about potential trademark infringement.

The name of the two-day show, which runs at the Barbican in the City of London on 11 to 12 October, was changed to Appule to stave off threats from the vendor, Robert Peckham, boss at Mac Technology, an Oxfordshire-based Apple reseller, confirmed.

Peckham, a consultant for Appule, does not expect a change of heart from Apple over participation at the show: "Apple has said it will not get directly involved. It's a global decision not to take part in third-party events because it spends so much money on its own stores."

But he thinks Apple's absence will have no impact on the show, as visitors are "already Mac users who want to make better use of the hardware".

Apple may not have backed the event but Jonathan Sunburk, Office:mac category manager at Microsoft, told The Reg that Redmond indeed plans to showcase "Office for Mac products".

Sunburk confirmed the Microsoft had taken a stand, alongside 100 exhibitors, and that there will be "some video content and some giveaways".

Microsoft is about to make its Dynamics CRM tool compatible with browsers other than Internet Explorer, opening it up to Mac users, and is preparing to launch Office 365 for the iPad/iPhone which it will want to flag up.

The final MacExpo in the UK was held at London Olympia in 2007, though it morphed into Creative Pro Expo a year later before being killed off.

Indigo Media and Apple were unavailable to comment. ®