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Apple pulls out of own UK show

Paris chosen as sole Euro expo site. Well, the food'll be better at least...

Apple has admitted that it has dropped its support for the UK's only Mac show, Apple Expo 2000, to focus instead on MacWorld Expo Paris as its European public platform. All other European shows have been cancelled too, an Apple spokesman told MacWorld UK. The shows have been canned, he said, to "maximize the global impact" of the company's marketing moves. "Exhibitions are only one part of the marketing mix," he said. "We have to make the most effective use of our marketing funds as possible, and that's the backdrop to our decision to pull out of Apple Expo 2000." Certainly, Apple has been spending the bulk of its promo budget on advertising, which is arguably more benefit that a stand at a trade show, particularly one that has always lacked the pizzazz, media attention and broad spread of the US' bi-annual MacWorld Expo. Still, Apple's move is ironic given that it was itself the leading force behind Expo 2000. Eighteen months ago Apple amazed the UK Mac community by pulling out of the then upcoming Apple Expo/Total Design Show (TDS), formerly the MacUser Show. Apple's move made sense because of its increasing focus on the consumer space -- it had just launched the iMac -- and the fact that organiser Emap Exhibitions' creation of TDS aspect was essentially geared at winning business from the Windows NT market, something Apple was never going to be happy with. At the time, Apple said it planned to investigate how to run its own show, the result being Apple Expo 2000, which it signed show specialist CKS to organise on its behalf. Announced on 9 September, the show was due to take place next Spring. Whether Expo will continue without Apple's support is not yet known. According to MacWorld UK, many of the Mac market's leading lights have already booked stands at the show, including a number of big names, such as Microsoft and Quark, that like Apple last year pulled out of the lacklustre TDS. ®

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