SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — The guys at Topaz Labs thought business would be slow at the first Macworld without Apple, so they packed only 250 CDs of their software.
They sold out in the first few hours of the first day.
Worried it was just an opening-day rush, and that day two would be dead, they had just 250 more overnighted to their hotel. But those too quickly sold.
“It’s been awesome. I’m exhausted,” laughed Ivan Randall of Topaz Labs. “It’s been a great show.”
Almost all the vendors we talked to told the same story: Macworld 2010 has definitely been worth the money. Many had low expectations, but turnout has been great and business is brisk.
Coming into Macworld, most pundits had pre-written the show’s obituary. They assumed it would die without Apple, just like Macworld Paris, Tokyo and New York/Boston.
But like Mark Twain, rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
“It’s been worth every penny,” said David Barnard, owner of App Cubby, a Texas iPhone app developer who rented a space in the popular Mobile Pavilion, which is showcasing dozens of app vendors.
Likewise, the guys at Appigo, another iPhone app developer, said the same thing. “For us it’s been a great sucess,” said co-owner Calvin Gaisford. “I’m surprised at the number of contacts we’ve made.”
Unlike Barnard, who is exhibiting on a shoestring, Appigo has rented a small booth. The company is spending about $20,000, including fees, airfares, marketing materials and so on.
“I’m kinda glad to see a Macworld without Apple,” said Gaisford. “They totally dominated the show. I’m glad to see what else is out there.”
Only one vendor I talked to is taking a wait-and-see approach. Chris Bundy, director of marketing at Atlona, said it would be a few weeks before he knew whether the contacts he’s made would translate into sales.
“For exhibitors it’s tough times,” he said.
Nonetheless Bundy said he’s making a lot of good contacts — not just consumers, but buyers in the private and public sectors.
“I’m pleasantly surprised; there’s a lot of commercial contacts here,” said Bundy. But he pointed out that none of his competitors are at the show.
Of course, not everyone at Macworld is doing gangbuster business. Some of the booths at the edges of the show are quiet and empty.
But for companies like Topaz, which has a hot product, the show has been great.
Debuting at Macworld, its suite of nine easy-to-use Photoshop/iPhoto plugins are proving very popular.
Plus, the Topaz guys are hustling, selling the software hard with back-to-back demos. Their booth is small and tucked away in a back corner of the show floor — but it has been constantly mobbed.
“It’s been crazy,” said Randall. “We’ve been exhausted by 10 AM. But that’s a good problem to have.”
Are they coming back next year?
“Yeah, of course we’re coming back,” laughed Randall.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
