Should Apple have had a bigger presence at SXSW?
With the newly released iPhone SDK, Webkit, Safari (now available on Mac & PC) and Apple’s professional audio and video software such as Logic, Final Cut and Shake, I was fully expecting to see a rather prominent Apple booth at the SXSW tradeshow.
I did see a handful of Apple employees on the list of panelists speaking at SXSW, an interactive, film and music conference and festival hosted annually in Austin, Texas. It appeared they were there more for personal reasons than officially there on behalf of Apple.
Is Apple so confident in their place in the industry that they can ignore their core user group? Was their absence simply due to other factors, like a busy schedule or timing conflicts? Surely Apple has enough “evangelists” on staff to send a few.
Apple wasn’t the only big company missing from the floor… There was no Mozilla or Microsoft or Avid. Yahoo, Google, Mapquest and others were represented, as were a slew of smaller companies offering services, products or software.
Should Apple have had a presence at the conference? Have they ever before? To be honest, this was my first time at SXSW and I was more surprised than anything at Apple’s absence, especially considering the SDK announcement the day before SXSW started.
Jeremy on March 13th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I would have liked to see Apple, but I can see where that would be “preaching to the choir.” Microsoft was definitely there, though, with a huge booth. I know they kept trying to tell me about Silverlight replacing Flash, since Flash is withering away with their 99.9% marketshare.
Brandon Eley on March 13th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Well, now that you mention it I do remember seeing some Silverlight DVD boxes on a table and thinking, “how silly is this!”
I must have been laughing so hard I missed the sign.
Michael Moncur on March 14th, 2008 at 5:46 am
I’ve gone to SXSW for a few years (missed it this year) and never seen Apple there.
It doesn’t really seem to be a good fit for them. SXSW is more for web developers and social media people, it’s not the sort of hard-core dev conference that all of the Mac developers go to.
Patrick on March 14th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Maybe SWSWwhatever is not that big a deal. Austin is a small town. Stop “expecting” anything in the land of Dell.
It’s Texas. Just enjoy Bob Schneider.