Gaming And "Special Interests" Get Boost To Mac Expo Floor
[9:39 AM] IDG Expo Management has announced some new additions to the main Expo floor for January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The chief among them is that a Mac Gaming Championship will be held, similar to the one held in New York's Macworld Expo this past fall. This year's "Mac Gaming Championship and Exhibits" will be held in the Consumer Showcase as part of the Special Interest Environments area on the main show floor.

NetInnovators is another new part of the Expo and it is designed to showcase hot new internet related tools, applications, and hardware. It too will be housed in the Special Interest Environments area on the main floor.

IDG Expo Management also announced a new program called The Corporate Buying Alliance that is aimed at helping Corporate buyers stand out from the crowd. Corporate attendees will be able to wear a special ribbon that will allow vendors to pick them out of the crowd.

The Mac Observer Spin: Apple has worked very hard in recent months to show their commitment to the previously ignored consumer market. The iMac and the new loan program is just a part of this effort as the company has done everything is could to reach out and embrace games and other consumer level concepts like never before.

Many of you may know that Apple once discouraged Mac gaming efforts in an effort not to have the Mac appear to be a toy, Since Mr. Jobs has returned to the helm, the company has made an abrupt departure from those policies.

For example: The developers at Eidios, the makers of the extraordinarily popular Tomb Raider series, were recently quoted as saying Apple was bending over backwards for them. The company has also worked with Bungie, the publisher/creator of the wildly fantastic Myth: The Fallen Lords, to produce new versions of NetSprocket. Today's announcement about a Gaming Championship being held on the main floor of the Macworld Expo just carries this new found realization of the importance of gaming to a new high.

As we have pointed out in the past, in order for Apple to significantly increase its market share of the consumer market, an expanded game presence is mandatory. The decision to hold the Mac Gaming Championship and Exhibits on the main show floor is a demonstration that Apple finally understands this.