From the Show Floor - New Exhibitors Pepper MWSF

by , 1:30 PM EST, January 17th, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- As Apple grows, enters new markets, and builds buzz, so does the ecosystem around Apple's products. One gauge of the health of this ecosystem is the behavior of exhibitors at the Macworld Expo. Judging by who's new here at the show, interest and confidence in Apple and its products remains high.

Joby is exhibiting at Macworld for the first time. For a couple of years, Joby has sold a quirky camera and camcorder peripheral -- a sort of off-road tripod -- called Gorillapod, but the company has never exhibited at Macworld before. On January 3, Joby announced a sleek, iPhone-compatible bluetooth headset, Zivio, slated to come out later this year.

If peripherals for video and iPhone are a good reason to start exhibiting at Macworld, audio is an even better reason. The exhibit floor -- particularly in the lower-rent West Hall -- is peppered with newcomers. Audio Engine USA is at Macworld for the first time, showing off the recently released A2 computer speakers and the TMO Editor's Choice-winning W1 Wireless Adapter. A few aisles over, DPI, a veteran manufacturer from St. Louis was showing off a wide variety of made-for-iPod speaker systems.

The iPod phenomenon has also supported countless fad products, from earbud-sharing gadgets to iPod DJ equipment, and other such products can be found here and there throughout the show. Budclicks makes clip-on earbud accessories, aimed primarily at tweens. Kitchy? Sure. But their presence on the show floor has Brian Johnson, Budclicks' owner, encouraged. So far at the show, distributors -- including WalMart -- have expressed interest in their product.

There's also the slow march of software coming to the Mac, and Software Bisque falls into the category of a developer long AWOL, but now coming back to the Mac. They're showing off TheSkyX, a promising-looking application for seeing what the starscape will be (or was) at any place on the planet, at any date and time.

All and all, the show floor is as lively and eclectic a mix of exhibitors as we've ever seen at a Macworld Expo, and that can only mean it's a good time to be a Mac, iPod, or iPhone customer.