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.