David’s take on Day One

Day Two, and I’m by myself (for a few minutes, at least) in the Media room in Moscone. The press hordes will soon be streaming in to avail themselves of the free breakfast.

Yesterday was a day to get the feel of the Expo, and to renew some old aquaintainces. John Nemo seems to know virtually every PR person here, and on a first name basis, too. I took a few minutes to press the flesh with TidBITS and Ars Technica writer Glenn Fleishman, as well as Tonya Engst of TidBITS.

While I wasn’t high enough up the media food chain to attend the Keynote, it was discussion fodder for the MyMac crew for most of the day. The general reaction was one of light-to-moderate disappointment. The majority of our crew felt Phil did a yeoman job of the speech and product demos, but that he had nothing with real zip to announce. The built-in battery on the MacBook Pro 17″ came in for withering criticism from resident mensch Owen Rubin.

Of course, we all agreed product release timing is a big reason why Apple’s chosen to not attend future Macworld Expos, so as to not be handcuffed to early January product announcement dates. Around floor, one could hear random comments like “He could have at least pre-announced something good…” While Phil did “pre-annouce” iLife 09, shipping in late January, my take is that Apple wants to get out the pre-annoucement business. In the past, hardware pre-announcements have come back to bite Apple in the corporate ass when they can’t ship on time. So, don’t pre-annouce, and you won’t disappoint.

Out on the floor, the crowd was typically large and enthusiastic. While this year’s crowd did not reach the level of rugby scrums seen in a few previous years, the floor was definitely crowded. The missing house-sized Adobe booth left a gap in the center of the South Hall, but that extra space made the traffic jam around the Apple booth a bit less dense.

All the vendors I talked to felt the show energy level was good, but the future was on everyone’s mind. Also, some vendors had a few concerns about the recession on the Macintosh market. The best evidence I have that the economy is bad is that the quantity and quality of Expo swag (freebie handouts) is as bad as I’ve ever. There’s nothing worth taking home!