The producer of Macworld Conference & Expo on Thursday made official its plans to move the summer installment of the show back to its Boston birthplace—but Apple Computer said it wont be along for the ride.
IDG World Expo said that starting in July 2004, the annual East Coast event will be held at the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
For July 2003, it will return to New Yorks Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where IDG moved the show in 1998 after 13 years in Boston, reportedly at the behest of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Apple lost no time in lambasting the move, which for months has been the subject of intense negotiations between IDG and the cities of Boston and New York. “Today IDG announced plans to move Macworld New York to Boston in July of 2004. Apple disagrees with this decision, and will not be participating in Macworld Boston,” the Cupertino, Calif., company said in a statement.
“Since IDG is no longer investing in New York, we now need to re-evaluate our participation in Macworld New York 2003. Apple will continue to participate in Macworld San Francisco in January.”
An Apple spokeswoman declined to elaborate further on the statement.
IDG responded to Apples comments by e-mailing out a statement of its own: “Apple remains an important partner for Macworld Conference & Expo, and IDG World Expo has been in communication with Apple officials for some time about the move back to Boston.
“Since we just heard of Apples position, we can only speculate about the companys reasons and hope to learn more.”
In addition to the July show, IDG runs key Macworld Expo events in San Francisco and Tokyo. Apple has traditionally been the primary exhibitor at these events, and under Jobs, the tradition of the Macworld Expo keynote presentation has become a major media event.
Europes biggest Mac event—Septembers Apple Expo in Paris—is produced by Apple itself.
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