ExpoScam continues to rage, as Apple keeps decidedly mum on the subject-- beyond apparently confirming that the company will not have even a "token presence" at Apple Expo 2000. Macworld UK has now started referring to the show as "beleaguered," a term once applied only to seriously distressed multi-billion-dollar computer companies like Compaq. Yes, that's how much trouble the show is in; while it was originally poised to be the largest expo ever held in the U.K., now that Apple's pulled out, it may no longer happen at all. An open letter to Steve Jobs from Faye Moss, the show's sales manager, is a good distillation of the frustration seething throughout the U.K. Mac community.

What we at AtAT don't really understand is why Apple won't even agree to a "token presence." Our understanding is that Steve Jobs, who was originally scheduled to issue one of his patented keynote addresses at the show, decided to bail because another opportunity arose to keynote at a different show at the same time. Okay-- we're not big fans of breaking a date because a "better offer" comes around, but we can understand how a mercurial iCEO might behave that way. But just because Steve won't keynote doesn't seem like a reason for Apple not to attend at all.

I was just at a neurosurgical trade show on non-AtAT business, and buried way at the back of the hall away from all the big vendors of bone saws and retractors was an Apple booth. Well, okay, it wasn't really a booth, per se, unless by "booth" you mean "little table displaying a single iMac DV and a lone PowerBook." It was manned by a single Apple representative from the Scientific and Medical Markets division, who was very friendly and more than willing to swap iMac stories for a few minutes. No other computer manufacturers were in attendance. So if Apple can spare a token presence at a show whose focus was as seemingly off-topic as brain surgery, why won't they show up at Apple Expo 2000?

Another Macworld UK article posits the obvious theory: money. It's possible that Apple UK simply hasn't raked in enough moolah to justify attending Apple Expo 2000. Establishing a big, impressive presence at a trade show takes some serious cash, and it's certainly a possibility that Apple UK can't spare it. As for establishing a token presence instead, well, they may have decided that not showing up at all is preferable to attending but looking cheap. Still, we wish that somebody from Apple would say something to calm things down. Hordes of frothing Englishmen with torches and pitchforks attacking Apple's headquarters, while potentially entertaining, would probably be a Bad Thing™.