No More Macworld?

As recently announced, Macworld 2009 will be the last Macworld that Apple will attend. What's more surprising to many is that Steve Jobs already presented at his last Macworld conference. That's right, Steve Jobs will not take the stage this year for the last Macworld appearance. Now why would he do this? Shouldn't he finish what he started? And why isn't he appearing at Macworld? Such questions flooded my mind and I'm sure many others were stunned by this decision (if you're an Apple fanatic like me). Being naive, I actually thought that Macworld was an Apple-made event (Mac + world anybody?) until I found out that Apple is not in charge of Macworld and in fact, Apple had been planning to opt out for years. According to CNBC, Jobs was motivated by "politics" rather than his illness to make this decision. Events like these actually do little to help boost Apple's revenue and barely generate much attention to promote their products. But why would Jobs not take the stage himself for the last time? It is becoming more evident that Steve Jobs may soon no longer be the head honcho at Apple. Letting other officers take the stage, his cancer, and the fact that Apple may have reached its peak all hint to a possible early retirement. Over the years, he has been talking on stage less and less, and this was evident at WWDC, the iPod event, and the Macbook event. In fact, Jobs barely talked at all at the last event. He has started to get the seat warmed up early so his absence won't have as much of an impact as believed to be. Like Microsoft, where it took years until Gates retired to be replaced by Ballmer, Jobs is transitioning in the same way by exposing his co-workers to the media to make the change smooth and keep the stocks steady.

This is all just speculation made by me. Maybe Steve is playing a trick on us or maybe he just didn't like Macworld. However it is becoming evident that something imperative will change at Apple over the next few years. Personally, I hope Steve stays as long as he can; preferably until he's in his 70s. I like how he thinks.