Macworld's Apple celebration opens amid fears of tech giant's decline

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/31/macworld-apple-share-price-fall

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The annual gathering of Apple devotees known as Macworld opens in San Francisco on Thursday, but instead of fanfare there is anxiety that the tech giant may be losing its flair for innovation.

Doubts about Apple's continued ability to astonish and delight with bold new products hang over the thousands of suppliers, designers and enthusiasts who are more accustomed to celebrating the company.

"There is real concern Apple will turn into a big, unexciting technology company like IBM and put out iterative products rather than revolutionary products," said Seth Weintraub, a blogger and analyst with 9to5mac.com. "It's a valid concern."

Steve Jobs, the co-founder who died of pancreatic cancer last year, drove Apple's relentless innovation and perfectionism, said Weintraub. "I don't know that the rest of the crew can do that."

Coming in the wake of a diving share price and other bad news, the four-day conference, now known as Macworld/iWorld, will showcase new apps, gadgets and services to industry professionals and ordinary members of the public at the Moscone centre in downtown San Francisco. It will kick off with Hollywood glitz in the form of Ashton Kutcher and the makers of the biopic Jobs, which recently premiered at the Sundance film festival. Kutcher, who was hospitalised after emulating Jobs's fruitarian diet, will discuss the movie with his co-star Josh Gad, who plays Steve Wozniak, Apple's other co-founder.

Later on Thursday the rapper, musician and technology investor will.i.am will discuss creativity and gadgets with Intel's futurist Brian David Johnson.

Apple, which is based an hour away at Cupertino, stopped participating in the show in 2009, apparently to escape the ritual hype and to control the timing of big announcements. Suppliers and app creators have tried to fill the gap but veterans say the show, which started in 1985, has lost much of its buzz.

Apple aficionados worry more about the company itself losing its buzz. Recently it has been making headlines for the wrong reasons. Tuesday's share price languished at $458, a 35% plunge since September which has let Exxon power past Apple as the world's biggest company. The disastrous introduction of a new Maps app triggered the rout.

Lukewarm quarterly earnings last week and revelations regarding the use of child labour in China did not help. Investors worry the tablet and phone market is saturated and that there are no zinger new products cooking in the labs at Cupertino.

Weintraub said a greater concern than share price, which could prove a confected yo-yo, is the sense of a company tweaking rather than inventing. "Google is doing all these things, every few weeks something new, it's wow, wow, wow. But with Apple it's maybe every few months."

Heidi Moore, the Guardian's US finance editor, has warned that Apple needs to dazzle but is thinking small and shallow. "For Apple to be cool again," she wrote, "it has to admit that it is in danger of becoming uncool."

Optimists note the company remains immensely profitable – it made $54bn in three months and has more than $130bn sitting in hedge funds – and could yet shake up the market with mooted innovations involving TVs, watches and wearable computers.

The faithful gathered in San Francisco will spend much of the week speculating about those long-rumoured products and trying out the latest spin-off products. Workers were putting finishing touches on Wednesday night to exhibition booths which will display products and services marrying iOS technology to art, business, design, photography and music.

"I have to say that this tool is awesome," said Jenna Williamson, part of a team from the company Dreamwalk which has created Jam for iPhone. The app lets you sing an original song into your phone and no matter how squawky or out of tune it is turned seconds later into an "original musical masterpiece". You select the musical style and tempo and the app does the rest, detecting and improving vocal pitch, musical key and song structure. Since its launch two weeks ago it has attracted almost 250,000 users.

Another product, the CameraMator, tethers cameras and phone cameras to iPads, providing a clearer image of the subject. It also lets you control a camera from your iPad, should the camera be beyond your reach. "Professional photographers and location producers will find this very useful," said Usman Rashid, an engineer with the Sanho Corporation which developed it.

Creators will also give courses in "iPhoneography", showing how you can make art and movies with a phone. "If you're wondering, an iPhoneographer is a person with an iPhone and above average self confidence," noted one observer.