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Apple ‘will not participate’ in Boston Macworld

Stands firm as IDC shifts show from NYC

Macworld Expo organiser IDG World Expo has confirmed its decision to site next summer's show in Boston rather than New York, the event's home for the past few years.

The announcement came this past Friday, just ahead of the self-imposed 1 September deadline revealed by company chief David Korse in August.

Apple was quick to confirm its own decision not to attend the show if it moved away from the Big Apple.

Early last month, Korse told the Boston Herald that he was reconsidering the decision made by a predecessor, Charlie Greco, to move the summer Macworld Expo from New York back to Boston, the show's original home. Fans and exhibitors applauded: the show was going back to its roots, and - more to the point - accommodation in Boston is rather cheaper than it is in New York.

The main dissenter was Apple, which believes the bigger city is more suitable for such a key event in the Mac calendar, attracting as it does media and visitors from around the world.

At the time of the original news of the move to Boston, Apple said it would not participate in the show if such a change of venue took place. And sure enough: "Our position stands and Apple will not be participating in Macworld Boston," the company said in statement.

That follows a statement from Korse announcing that, having weighed up the merits of both locations, he's gone for Boston. That, he says, is what vendors and attendees want. Not to mention Boston's own local administration, which has been building new conference facilities during the past few years.

"After research and discussions with key stakeholders, including vendors, consultants and attendees, it is clear that [holding the] Macworld Conference & Expo in Boston will provide great value to the Mac community," said David Korse.

How much value it will provide without Apple's participation remains to be seen. Increasingly, Apple CEO Steve Jobs' show keynote has proved the main draw for both the summer event and its Winter West Coast counterpart in San Francisco - which Apple says it still supports, incidentally. With the keynotes streamed on the Internet, supported by reams of Net-based coverage, there's simply less reason for Mac users to attend the show. That, in turn, makes it less attractive to exhibitors.

Remove Apple entirely from the picture and that trend is more likely to be exacerbated. Presumably IDG World Expo believes there's still sufficient interest from large East Coast publishers to warrant running a second show for a platform whose market share really warrants one only. ®

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