Apple is withdrawing from the  annual trade show devoted to celebrating its products, and Steve Jobs will not be delivering the keynote address at the annual Macworld show in January. Apple also stated that 2009 would be the last year the company will be exhibiting products at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Jobs has frequently used the Macworld presentation to make major company announcements about new products. In 2007 he stole the limelight of the Consumer Electronics Show which was running at the same time when he gave the first sneak preview of the iPhone. Apple said Philip Schiller, a marketing executive, would give the keynote speech instead of Jobs. Apple said it was forsaking the trade show because it had different methods of communicating to its customers, such as its retail stores and its iTunes online store.

This move could mean that Apple does not have a major product to release this year, but it also heightens speculation that Jobs could be having health problems. In 2004 Jobs recovered from a treatable form of pancreatic cancer.