Apple Had Long Planned to Leave Macworld

As more reactions come in, Apple's stock has dropped in the setting of downgrades by at least one financial analyst from Oppenheimer & Co. Businessweek's Arik Hesseldahl hopes that this might mean that Apple could show up at CES, though this would go against Apple's reasoning that trade shows are simply less important.

Gizmodo reports that Apple had been planning to get out of Macworld for a long time.

They almost quit in 2002, but about two years ago I was sharing some wine with a friend from Apple and he told me: "We are going to phase out all trade shows". "Even MacWorld?," I asked. "Yes," he said, "MacWorld will go too. I don't know when, but it will."

Readers may remember that Apple pulled out of Macworld Boston in 2002 due to disagreements with the show's organizer IDG. The Macworld Boston show was cancelled soon after.