Macworld Expos have not excited me very much since the mid-90s, though every summer, when the East Coast edition rolls into New York City, I make it a point to head over to the Javits Center and see what the Mac industry has to show for itself. Inevitably, I find myself bored after no more than an hour or two of browsing the aisles, and this year was no different. Actually, that may be good news, considering the comedy of PR errors that preceded this year’s New York show (which demonstrated that Apple has no particular desire to see an Apple-focused trade show in New York thrive). It’s kind of a success story in itself that the show floor looked crowded and that everyone seemed pretty upbeat.

Still there was a lot this year’s show lacked, including the participation of major vendors like Adobe and Macromedia, the presence of any truly standout, innovative Mac products (I may not have been looking hard enough), and visual decor in the form of booth babes (one side-effect of a down economy that works in the favor of feminists). The number of booths had clearly diminished from previous years, and the convention floor felt less expansive. Most disappointingly, the representatives at the Apple booths charged with demonstrating the upcoming Panther update were notably under-informed, and were easily confounded by questions of moderate complexity.

That didn’t stop me from having a decent time wandering around, picking up freebies and talking to various vendors. As it turned out, I wound up spending way more money than I had while attending past expos: I bought some RAM and a new hard drive to upgrade my girlfriend’s aging PowerMac G4. All in all, not a terrible trade show, but hardly memorable.