Apple announces final MacWorld

In repsonse to the Engadget article:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/16/apple-announces-final-macworld-steve-jobs-wont-deliver-keynote/5#c16152216

I am personally disappointed to see it go. Apple has been ramping up their own special events for a while now and everyone gets excited about those, but for years MacWorld was the one big event other than WWDC that we expect big things. I can't help but think it has to be hard for Apple to knock one out of the park every year in January, but lets not underestimate the power of this event.

While its value as a trade show may be limited and the explanations of the online and retail stores trumping the need for a trade show make logical sense, I can't help but think that the nostalgia and nearly un-rivaled coverage they receive from this one event is something that is hard to value. How many companies other than Apple can systematically pull this off every year and get the attention that they do? I don't know the cost involved for attending MacWorld, but it would have to be awfully high for this to be dropped. This makes me question why they chose to do this. Special event coverage doesn't occur on a pre-defined schedule, so I would think they would at-least want to replace MacWorld with their own event every year. I guess we'll see.