I think that Apple wants to focus more on its WWDC. There have been less "oohs" and "aahs" lately at these conferences, so a once-a-year WWDC would be able to have bigger announcements and it wouldn't force Apple to release new products or announce them before they're 100% ready.

I think also maybe Apple wants to show that Steve Jobs isn't the man holding up Apple Inc anymore. Apple has changed and is in a much better place than they used to be, they don't need Steve Jobs to do everything.

I have reason to believe that he is ill. The man is an icon (please note that I do not own a single Apple product, nor am I a fan of their products) of the consumer electronics industry, and a symbol for Apple. Most people will tell you--and I am definitely inclined to agree--that Apple will be in major trouble if they lose him. That's why personally, at the first inkling of him being ill I dumped all of my stock, even though on paper Apple looks great (what other company out there has ZERO debt?!). In any case, because of the correlation between Jobs and Apple's value, any information regarding his health is kept on the extreme down low. Him canceling his keynote may be a clue that something is wrong however.

As for Apple no longer participating in MacWorld, none of us really sees much value in tradeshows anymore. Considering the cost / benefit ratio is extraordinarily low, there is little more than minor branding value. That is why Comdex is now defunct along with so many others. I was pretty excited to check out Digital Life in New York earlier this year until it got canceled. Just like much of the media moving to the internet (newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.) so are many of the tradeshows. I think that sometime in the future that trend will flip-flop and head back towards what we saw during the nineties (at least with regards to tradeshows), but that may take a while, and certainly a healthier economy.

For a good article about Jobs and the cancellation of his keynote check out this link: http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/147605/Time-for-Apple-Fans-to-Freak-Out

It's one of the best I've read today.

I think the simple answer is that consumers were waiting to purchase Apple products until the trade show, and that the trade show occurred after the holidays. Apple needs to increase sales during the holidays.

Pancreatic Cancer is somewhat serious and there are very few survivors of that dsiease

He just finished his lifelong project of downloading all the porn on the internet, but then someone posted something new and he had to stay home and get that one too.

I think it's mostly due to money. Yes Apple has a ton of money to spend, but they also don't like to be wasteful. With so many other more effective ways to reach people, trade shows just don't make as much sense anymore.