As we prepare to head back into the Expo for a last happy day of wandering the floor, we thought we'd just share a few random thoughts about the overall experience this year. See, we at AtAT generally aren't the schmooze type, so we don't spend all our time getting sneak peeks at secret products in the back rooms and drinking ourselves into oblivion at the various parties only to awaken half-naked in a dumpster inexplicably clutching a tin of Altoids and a rubber chicken. Not that that's not a perfectly legitimate way of Expo-ing, but for us, we generally play things like Joe and Jane Expogoer. We wander the show floor with a curious mixture of awe and edge-of-the-seat excitement, we look at all the neat toys, we wait in line to try out the beta of the latest Bungie game, we jump up and down in the Apple Theater in hopes that the boothbot will throw us a t-shirt (we each caught one this year!), and we sit through endless Palm demos in an attempt to win a Palm V for free. For those of you who think the AtAT staff are Macworld celebrities or something, we're not. But maybe next year. ;-)

Anyway, our point is that this approach probably gives us the Average Showgoer's Viewpoint™. And as average showgoers, we have to say that this year's show seems smaller than last year's; covering all the exhibits doesn't seem to take as much time. Maybe that's just because last year's show was the first one at the Javits Center and so this year we're more used to it, but that's the feeling, anyway. Plus, there seems to be a dearth of cool swag this time around. The volume of cheap plastic junk with company logos printed on it ready to disappear into our bulging shopping bags seems to be way down, which is a darn shame. And on a similar note, there seem to be far fewer "show special" deals worth getting excited about: check Deal-Mac and you'll see that there isn't very much to report. And even our celebrity-spotting is down this year; our closest brush with greatness came when Mac pundit Bob Levitus came into the restaurant where we were eating and held a loud conversation with the people at the next table. It didn't quite measure up to seeing Gregory Hines buying a hot dog a few years back.

Now, that's not to say that this Expo feels like a failure-- not by a long shot. The energy level is high and attendance seems to be up, though we haven't seen any official numbers yet. But we're wondering if the lack of swag and show specials is symptomatic of something, whether it's the fallout from the higher expenses of exhibiting in New York, or if Apple's so "back" that the vendors don't feel a need to try as hard to hold people's attention. Nevertheless, we're having a blast, and it's a real treat to be surrounded by teeming throngs of Mac fans from around the globe. It's like coming home again.