Apple to attend CES this year?
There is probably no other place where rumors are more rife than in the world of Apple. Now we have rumors (and counter-rumors) that Apple may be attending CES this year. True? Not true?
This latest rumor that Apple would be exhibiting at the Consumer Electronic show in Las Vegas, 2010, apparently had its beginnings in a dinner conversation in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this week. Different attendees seem to remember exactly what was said in a slightly different way. Which of those you believe will determine whether you believe the rumor or not.
All of the versions include several tech journalists at dinner with the head of the CES show organizer Consumer Electronics Association, Gary Shapiro. According to a Wall Street Journal blog, Shapiro indicated at one point that Apple would indeed be exhibiting at CES in 2010. It is remembered slightly differently by others at the table, including one who reported the conversation in a story on SFGate.com, and who also had a digital recorder at the table. According to that reporter, the salient portion of the conversation went like this:
Shapiro: iLounge, you know, we took advantage of announcing when Apple said they were not going to be part of Macworld, we just announced this with our partner and designated 3,000 square feet. And all of sudden everyone signed in and we have to keep expanding and expanding and we quadrupled it to 12,000 and we’re continuing to expand it. But we have so many different parts of that community there which is very exciting for us. So that’s a big deal for us that we’ve never had before. So the Apple community is migrating…
Question: Will that be on the show floor?
Shapiro: It will be a large portion of the show floor.
Question: Is Apple…?
Shapiro: Apple does not have a booth formally.
Question: Is that Jobs guy coming and talking?
Shapiro: I have invited Steve Jobs to speak but I’ve done that before.
Question: Does he always ignore you?
Question: Does he ever respond back?
Question: Do you say “please?”
Shapiro: Honestly, occasionally, they will respond with a “No.”
(Laughter)
Question: That’s good though…for him.
Question: He’s got an answer.
(Laughter)
Shapiro: Well, good I’m glad we all share the same frustrations…
(Laughter)
Shapiro: No, but we always show well. What they’re doing is very exciting and frankly there’s a whole another world that we’re capturing now (with iLounge) so we’re happy about that.
As it transpires, Shapiro said later in the conversation that as of now, the CES show floor was pretty much full and probably could not accommodate anything but a small presence at the show if Apple were to ask now. There’s simply not room.
There is the anatomy of a rumor. Some words are spoken over dinner, some hear the words one way, some hear them another. Multiple people then write a story founded upon what they thought they heard. In the end, based on a recording of the conversation, some people got it right and others got it wrong. Looks like Apple will not have a big presence at CES 2010. And that’s life in the fast Apple rumor lane.
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