You've read several posts here at the Trade Shows Blog that make mention of Apple products. From Nick's recent post stressing the importance of bringing your custom printed iPod accessories to the Pennsylvania Music Expo to Stacie's entry about apps that are built specifically for navigating through trade shows, it's clear that Apple has had a profound impact on the industry. Therefore, it's not surprising that when the news of Apple's ex-CEO's death reached a popular trade show outside of Tokyo, attendees were stunned and upset.
PCWorld reports that at Ceatec, the largest Japanese electronics trade show, big-name companies like Sony and Toshiba exhibited their sleek tablets, designed specifically to compete with the iPad. It was difficult for trade show attendees to pass the rows of booths without thinking of Steve Jobs and his influence on the digital world. "Jobs was really the one that had pulled the world along behind him in terms of computers and technology, and his death will rattle the tech world," second-year college student Kanae Tani told PCWorld.
Others took the news of Jobs' death more harshly. One woman, who claims to have been an Apple fanatic since 1995, said she was shocked by the news. "I knew this day would come, but I didn't know it would be today," Miyuki Noma told PCWorld. "I've been crying since morning," she said.
Apple's mobile devices were the first foreign products of their kind to win over a large portion of Japanese consumers. According to CNN, in May 2010, Apple had grabbed 72% of the nation's smartphone market.
Will Jobs' death impact American tech sales in Japan? Only time will tell as the world recovers from Jobs' untimely passing.
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