Macworld to Take Manhattan

Interim Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs will be a no-show at Macworld Expo in New York this week, an unusual absence for what is usually one of the company’s highest-profile events. The reason, sources close to Apple confirmed: Jobs’ wife is due to deliver a baby any day.

Filling in as keynote speaker will be Phil Schiller, vice president for worldwide marketing. Schiller normally plays Jobs’ straight man during onstage comparisons of PCs and Macs. Baby permitting, Jobs will participate via videoconference.

Macworld shows occur twice a year--once in San Francisco and, until this year, once in Boston. International Data Group, the show’s sponsor and a major publisher of computer publications, finally gave up on Beantown’s inadequate conference venue and, in keeping with Apple’s decision to make media creators its prime targets, shifted Macworld to the Big Apple.

The show is unlikely to deliver last year’s drama, when Jobs’ announced an alliance with longtime rival Microsoft Corp. Apple has billed this Macworld as a giant coming-out party for its new iMac--the translucent, futuristic computer on which the company is staking its reentry into the consumer market.

The main news at the show may be about partnerships--a key part of any strategy that can help Apple continue its recent spate of good news, which has included two profitable quarters in a row and an apparent resolution of problems with its long-convoluted strategy for the Mac operating system.