"So, is it really going to happen?" asked Jim Raleigh, a longtime Mac user from New Jersey who stuck around for this year's Macworld, after spending the holidays with relatives in California.
"Rest assured, it is really going to happen," said Paul Griffin of the bureau, answering the question, but probably not for the last time.
In October 2002, IDG World Expo announced plans to move the East Coast version of the show to Boston in October 2002. Apple responded the same day that IDG announced its plans, saying it will not make the move to Boston. Both sides have dug their heels in, with IDG pledging to hold the show from 12 July to 15 July, and Apple insisting that it won't attend. After briefly reconsidering the move last year, IDG said in September that it would go ahead with the move to Beantown.
Raleigh said he is unconvinced that there will be much to see in Boston. "I'm pretty cynical," he said.
As is typical, Apple is by far the largest exhibitor at the show, occupying more than 20,000 feet in the heart of the main floor. Although no other company comes close, Microsoft, Canon, Adobe Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Macromedia, Olympus and Epson all are expected to have large booths.
Security during set-up for the show is tight, as always, with Apple's booth obscured by a huge black tarp on all sides. Posted at the main entrance are two rather generic banners for the iPod. Tucked neatly behind each of the 15-foot banners, however, is another banner that is rolled up and whose contents are obscured from view, presumably a banner containing details of at least some of what Jobs has up his sleeve.
