Apple Going to CES Next Year, Source Says

A Cult of Mac source says that Apple will “go large” at CES next year, replacing Macworld. Wait, didn’t Apple just say that they were killing Macworld because they think trade shows are irrelevant?

While Cult of Mac’s–Wired’s Mac centric blog–source says “it’s a done deal” citing “friends who work at Apple”, this doesn’t match Apple’s previous statement regarding trade shows:

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

If Apple is shifting from Macworld and tradeshows to do their own low cost show-n-tells whenever they want, it doesn’t make much sense to believe they are “going large” at that big mammoth-graveyardish wasteland of electronics and press releases that some people like to call CES. Or does it? Whatever it is, something smells here, and it’s not all that bacon. [Cult of Mac]