iLounge.com has the best comprehensive reviews and first look posts of any other site. They cover a ton of Apple and 3rd party products and I’m in love with their site since I first started reading in 2003. I’ve seen their team each year at Macworld and they’re always busy as hell running booth to booth and doing some awesome product coverage. Today, Jeremy Horwitz posted “On iPod, iPhone, and iLounge at CES 2010”
I’m going to re post a few key things:
“As a result of Apple’s decision not to exhibit at Macworld Expo going forward, the vast majority of third-party iPod and iPhone companies we’ve heard from have said that they will not be exhibiting at Macworld Expo, either, and that they are instead considering—under the right circumstances—moving over to the 2010 CES.”
“…we went directly to the iPod and iPhone development community to determine their plans for Macworld and their needs going forward. The broad consensus amongst these companies was that they were not going to exhibit at Macworld Expo. Many of them knew what happened at Macworld Boston, Apple Expo Paris, and MacExpo London, trade shows which became sad ghost towns while draining lots of money from overly optimistic exhibitors’ pockets. Without Apple around to draw crowds, and with limited marketing resources, companies are trying to figure out the right next step.”
“We are convinced that the best option is CES 2010, and we have absolutely, openly been in contact with CEA and members of the iPod and iPhone community regarding that show.”
“Our strong hope is that CEA will make it possible for everyone from small App developers to large accessory makers to exhibit at the 2010 CES show, and we think that we have some great ideas for how to bring the community together and make this happen. My personal belief is that CES will wind up offering iPod and iPhone companies fantastic exposure at a time when they will really be glad to have it”
It would seem that iLounge is announcing it’s coverage of CES2010 and that it will not be covering Macworld 2010 at least not in the capacity that I’ve seen the past 6+ years. Unforunately, iLounge is kind of a big deal for iPod and iPhone accessory makers and iLounge announcing that they’ll be pulling out means that a large chunk of exhibitors will be doing the same. This is a very sad development in the Macworld 2010 show. I don’t know if IDG was ever contacted by iLounge directly but I think a good thing IDG could do would be to make iLounge and other sites like Engadget, Gizmodo and Macworld.com “Media Partners” so they get some free promotion in exchange for doing what they were doing anyway which is covering new products at expo. Now, I’m not saying that those companies would accept the offer and still end up going to CES2010 but it might be something they consider.
Other than my tiny thoughts, it’s unfortunate that we won’t see iLounge covering this year’s Macworld and I have a good feeling this is going to be a big deal as 3rd party companies hear of this news.
