On December 16, Apple announced it is possible that this January’s Macworld Conference & Expo might be the last time the company participates. Furthermore, the usual keynote at the conference will not be held by Steve Jobs anymore, as Phil Schiller will take his place. On Tuesday, Apple did not make any comments on Jobs’ health, but they denied the rumor that the company’s CEO has lost a lot of weight in the last period.

This is quite bad news, considering that Apple hasn’t missed a single Macworld event and that they have been holding it since 1985. On the other hand, many analysts pointed out that Apple has been establishing itself in the retail market themselves.

With over 250 retail stores worldwide, Apple manages to sell their products to more than 3.5 million people every single week. More than that, the analysts think that these retail stores, along with the popular advertising campaigns made the company’s messages to get easier and more effective to their customers than a one hour and a half speech would do. Almost every computer user must have heard about the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” advert series.

Other sources state that it’s not Steve Jobs’ health which made him give up the speech, but the fact that Apple hasn’t come up with a new and striking product until now. In addition, another reason is said to be the one that the company isn’t willing to make a buzz unless they have enough reasons.