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July 7 - 10, 1998
MacWorld Expo, NYC
The Creative World
Jacob Javits Center
By WilliamLH
July 6, 1998
The "Sneak Peek"scheduled from 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm, was canceled
due a lack of interest
by developers. So I decided to walk around Mid-Manhattan, it was
on this walk I saw my first iMac ad and then saw the huge Think
Different! ad on Times Square, when I returned to my hotel, I
heard an Apple Radio ad and saw the TV Ad that has been running,
very nice Apple PR.
July 7, 1998
MacWorld Expo, Pro Conferences begin.
Keynote is moved to tomorrow morning.
Apple announces: Apple Store Expands E-doors to Individual Students
and Faculty:
"Beginning today, individuals at K-12 schools and higher education
institutions in the U.S. can order systems online--at special
education prices--by locating their institution on The Apple Store
for Education Individuals
(www.apple.com/education/store/). 
To order from the Apple Store for Education, individual customers
are required to submit proof of eligibility. For more information
about eligibility requirements, please visit the Apple Store for
Education Individuals website or call 800-780-5009."
July 8, 1998
Let me start by saying that MacWorld Expo, NYC has experienced
a few "moving pains"in the transition from Boston to New York
City, the "SneakPeek" that was to take place from 5-9:00 pm on
July, 6 was canceled due to a lack of support from developers.
The keynote was moved from the morning of the 7th to the 8th,
as usual some conferences have been canceled and things are a
bit slow here. This is the first year in a new city*, and MacWorld Expo comes in on the heels of PC Expo just a week
and a half ago here at the Jacob Javits Center.
MacWorld Expo User Conferences begin.
Apple announces:
iMac to Ship on August 15 with 56K Modem and a Variety of Consumer
Software.
Leading USB Vendors Commit to iMac.
Flood of Application Software Announced for Macintosh.
Apple and Microsoft Celebrate First Anniversary of Alliance on
Macintosh.
Apple WebObjects Customers Top 3,000.
High-Quality DVD Movies Coming to a PowerBook G3 Screen Near You.
Third Party iMac Releases.
9:00 am Keynote:
Speculation surrounds the lines into the keynote as all the conference
attendee's wonder if Steve Jobs will appear in person rather than via satellite as has been stated
for weeks**. We get in the keynote around 8:55 am and by 9:03 am we see Mr.
Jobs on the floor, having flown in on a "red-eye" express
to be here.
Steve Jobs addresses the conference to a thunderous round of applause,
he begins by talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how
Apple Computer Inc. has begun to apply it to their business practices.
Mr. Jobs stated that Apple has streamlined their product line
down to 2 main products:
Consumer and Professional, Portables and Desktops. He then went
on to describe "Apple Hierarchy of Skepticism"and stated the G3
line has sold over 750,000 machines.
Jobs showed a quote from former CEO, John Scully, "Steve has done
a terrific job of bringing back excellent marketing."
Jobs showed off a movie that Apple made of a boy and his dog setting up an iMac and connecting to the Internet against a man setting up a Pentium
II, 400 MHz machine. The boy and the dog were connected and surfing
the Internet in 8 minute, 15 seconds, the PC user took 27 minutes,
39 seconds! This movie got very good audience reception. He then
showed off the Macs new DVD control panel.
Mr. Jobs and Paul Schiller showed off a side-by-side file transfer
of a G3 running an early beta of MacOS 8.5 (Allegro) versus a
Pentium II 400 MHz running Windows 98, it was almost a repeat
of Bill Gates Windows 98 demo, only on the Apple side, but they
reran the test and the Allegro system beat the Pentium by about
3.5 seconds.
Jobs basically reaffirmed all the points he released at WWDC a
bit back, so there was only one teaser of "new"news, that
being that Apple Computer Inc. will post it's 3rd. profitable
quarter in a row, but would not release numbers until July 15,
1998 (Ed. Note - on July 15th., Apple posted a $101 million profit for Q3.).
Steve did give some numbers on Apple's installed base saying that
there were 22 - 25 million units worldwide and that Apple has
only a 10% "defection" rate of installed users with machines ranging
in age from 3 - 5 years old, meaning that only 10% of users with
machines this old buy a PC as their next computer.
Jobs invited Mr. Richard Wolpert, Disney Online on stage to confirm
Disney's alliance with Apple Computer Inc. and to announce the
debut beta release of Disney Blast Online - http://www.disneyblast.com/mac/ , it is a public beta of this Disney Online service for Mac users
and requires at least MacOS 8, Netscape Navigator or Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4.0 or Higher browser, 100 MHz PowerPC processor
or Higher, 24 Megs. RAM or Higher and 28.8 or Higher modem connection,
at the end of beta the service will cost $5.95 a month or $39.95
a year, all funds in USD. Disney Blast Online has interactive
games and activities available.
2:00 pm
AppleMasters Keynote session:
The AppleMasters Program available at http://www.applemasters.com/ , is a program that showcases persons who do exceptional things
with their Macs.
At this session AppleMasters Program Manager , Kanwal Sharma was
the Master of Ceremonies and hosted:
Gregory Hines, tap dancer, tapped a tribute to the iMac and stated "I couldn't
tap this good till I got a Mac!".
Paul Davis, Digital Artist, and David Marsh, Digital Music Composer whom produced a impromptu Mac made music
and animation "production" live for the audience.
Mr. Sharma then presented a short spot that Richard Dreyfuss made touting his love and admiration for the Mac PowerBook, which
he calls "friendly little, perfect genius of a machine."
Author of: "The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy", Douglas Adams stated 'we may not have got everything right, but at least we
knew the century would end!" referring to the Y2K (Year 2000 bug) Wintel problem, and announced that his CD-ROM
based game Starship Titanic will be ported and available for the
Mac by October 15, 1998.
Howard Bingham, Photographer and long time friend of Muhammad Ali showed off
some of his famous photos.
Jim Ludtke, Digital 3D Artist stated during his presentation that "PC Magazine
is created on Macintosh..."
Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, Astrophysicist, who is described by Dennis Miller as: "Carl
Sagan meets Madonna." performed some music produced through her
Mac the sounds were recorded from space, combined with computer
animation that was astounding.
Finally, Sinbad , acclaimed comedian, appeared and talked about his long time
love of Macintosh, stating: "I can't make my house payment, but
I have my G3 PowerBook!"and "Vibe was canceled cause they didn't
have a Mac!"further stating "I am a believer in Macintosh." He
fielded impromptu questions from the audience and was just all
in all a great time.
The session ended and the everyone in attendance had a great time.
This session was one of the highlights of MacWorld Expo, NYC 1998.
July 9, 1998
Vendors and exhibitors are set-up and going, attendance from exhibitors
and developers is down, but there is a good variety present. Most
notably, Hewlett Packard is exhibiting again, and has recommitted
to the Mac. Most developers that were in attendance liked the
sales they were getting this year in New York.
July 10, 1998
Today is the last day of the Expo, and things are winding down,
conferences are wrapping up and vendors are starting to get ready
to move on to the next conference, most notably, Internet Expo
in Chicago.
The 1st. Annual National Macintosh Gaming Championship
One of the newest and most anticipated "features"at this years
MacWorld Expo was the Macintosh Gaming Championship, this open
tournament was the stepping grounds for several game developers
who are increasing support for the Macintosh as a gaming platform
and will be creating more game content and titles in the up coming
months. It was nice to see the new commitment from these vendors
and developers.
The 1st. Annual National Macintosh Gaming Championship was a competition
open to all Expo attendee's and featured several popular games
on which to compete. There were individual and team competitions.
And the winners are:
| The 1st. Annual National Macintosh Gaming Championship winners
circle: |
| Duke Nukem 3D |
Edward Lin |
| Duke Nukem 3D (team) |
Carrington Vanston and
Jacob Fisher |
| F/A 18 Hornet Korea |
Paul Hibbert |
| Mars Rising |
Andy Nelson |
| Myth: The Fallen Lords |
Jason Shapiro |
| Myth: The Fallen Lords (team) |
Alexander Carter and
Devin Riley |
| Ares |
Paul Hibbert |
| Cobra Gunship |
Chuck Pierce |
| Bonkheads |
Syvain-Pierre Dobrzynski |
| Carmageddon |
Lev Piatigorsky |
| Quake |
Edward Lin |
| Quake (team) |
Brian Pemberton and
Chris Keander |
| Gridz |
Mark Nicholas |
| Marathon |
Jason R. Parry |
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Summary:
MacWorld Expo, NYC 1998 was not a Boston MacWorld, meaning that
the change in location and month affected the entire conference.
Vendor participation and attendance was down, but old vendors
such as Hewlett Packard, are back and showing their support for the reborn Apple Computer
Inc. Next year MacWorld Expo is back in Boston and is in August.
All in all the conference was good, but could have been a lot
better.
The AppleMasters Keynote and the iMac were the hit of the entire
show.
Several companies including Firestorm Films Corp. donated bits and pieces to the conferences such as an Apple IIe
and MacTechs Intl. who allowed one session to borrow their Mac Classic Business
Card drop box, as is the way with the Mac spirit.
It was nice to see some of the smaller vendors and a bunch of
Mac game developers in attendance and selling their products,
Mac gaming is back.
* - MacWorld Expo, 1999, will take place in August 1999 in Boston.
** - Industry rumor a month prior to the conference speculated
that Steve Jobs would appear in person rather than via satellite,
contrary to what was stated in all the MacWorld Expo, NYC literature.
Copyright ©1998 WilliamLH All Rights Reserved.
All Photographs on this page Copyright ©1998 WilliamLH All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without
express written permission is prohibited. WilliamLH's reviews
can be viewed at WilliamLH's Review Archive. He is the creator of The Mac Trading Post (tm) and speaker at MacWorld Expo, NYC session #50.
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