An article at TV Technology.com spills the beans that Apple will not be having a booth at NAB this year. This follows an announcement in November last year by Avid that they weren’t going to be having a booth in Vegas.
Apple has been missing from the list of NAB 2008 exhibitors, so this news doesn’t come as a huge surprise, especially after Avid’s decision. Trade shows are extraordinarily expensive for exhibitors — booth space, travel and hotels for employees, insurance, and more add up to a huge bill. In recent years, other manufacturers such as Autodesk have reduced the size of their presence at major tradeshows such as NAB and IBC. The internet provides a great way of disseminating information — and even local user group meetings provide a more personal interaction with artists.
One can hope they invest the money in software developers — fixing bugs (see our QuickTime article above) and bringing new features to market.