Why Apple Doesn't Need Tradeshows

It's official: Apple will not have a booth at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. This move doesn't really come as any surprise to me; Apple does well enough through their own advertisements, announcements and their own stores that the trade show circuit is largely superfluous.

Apple has shown that it can compete for headlines as well as any other electronics company -- for the past two years, Apple has made bigger headlines with their products more than any product at the larger CES was able to generate. I think the way that announcements are covered in media these days works against tradeshows to a large extent; members of the press already know what they are going to see, and it's mighty stressful for both businesses and journalists to arrange time for product demos, interviews and the like. This flurry of activity over a couple of days isn't enough to produce material to last for the whole year, or even until the next trade show rolls around. The information that gets released on the day of a tradeshow is just a raindrop in the vast lake of press releases. Apple's releases, because they are staggered throughout the year, keep showing up and hitting the front page of the tech section every time they do.

While it's convenient to see all the product offerings from different companies under one roof, a tradeshow ultimately leads to choice paralysis by the consumer. Best Buy and Circuit City don't stock every product made by electronic companies, they stock only the ones with the greatest profit margin for the store (this is why those stores carry a hodgepodge of models, while Costco carries one for every five you might find in a big box retailer. There's also the looming problem of customer service at retail stores: if they were to have every item in the catalog, consumers would ask the sales clerks for the differences between the models.

In effect, Apple's retail stores have become a year-round tradeshow, always showcasing the latest and greatest of the Apple products. Pair that with salespeople who actually are trained with knowledge of the products, and it's understandable why the Apple retail stores are so profitable.

Apple is setting up their own announcement to be made on February 26th. This is likely the announcement of the iPhone/iPod Touch SDK, and possibly the announcement of new MacBook Pros.