Macworld Expo 2009 kicks off this week, the last of these shows for Apple itself, and the first in a decade without the opening Tuesday keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
But Jobs has stolen the spotlight today: with an open letter to the "Apple community" about his health, a subject of intense speculation for the past year.
In the letter, Jobs says that the cause of his steady weight loss for the past year has only just been diagnosed: a hormonal imbalance that robs his body of needed proteins. He goes on to say that the solution to this nutritional problem is straightforward and he's already begun treatment. He says he expects to regain weight gradually over several months and will remain in harness as the company's CEO.
Apple isn't expected to unveil any blockbuster new products at the event. So with Jobs bailing from the keynote, you could ask "where's the fruit?"
Former Mac administrator Michael DeAgonia has some suggestions for Apple to make the Expo memorable nonetheless. His emphasis, in this Computerworld story, is on people (other than Steve Jobs) and communication.
He also writes "If Apple wants to maintain its current pricing, then it needs to continue pushing its integration, design and technological prowess to new areas -- all the while maintaining and building out currently successful technologies." The inclusion of "integration prowess" in that list is key, I think: Apple is seen mainly as a "client device creator" with software being an essential element of that client. Integrating those clients with existing enterprise infrastructures, and with the emerging Web/Internet infrastructures, is vital to Apple's continued success.
The conference's "Mac IT" track still seems a bit thin to me.
You can track our Macworld coverage and links here.
Are you attending Macworld? Are your running Mac clients and servers in your enterprise? Drop me a line at john_cox@nww.com or post here on what you're seeing or want to see from Apple....
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Cox is a senior editor at Network World.
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