Early Macworld Impressions

After two days of the show, our impression of Macworld San Francisco is that it’s somewhat subdued: not depressed, not desperate, but a bit quieter than previous years. That’s not surprising, since most of the Mac clone vendors are gone, notably the brash Power Computing. The show floor is about 10 percent smaller than last year, but reports indicate the size difference is almost exactly the same as the amount of space the clone vendors occupied last year. The tone of the show has regressed to previous years in other ways as well: graphics and multimedia companies are making big splashes, and the Internet has ceased to be the hot topic, perhaps thanks to Apple’s focus on only the publishing and education markets.