My generation is the first to really become fully educated in a mass consumer computer world. We learned how to type and draw images in second grade, and played the original Oregon Trail and World of Warcraft in third grade…and we did it all on Macs.

At least in my schools. IBM became the big shot when I was in middle school, and subsequently I was a PC user for much of my adolescence, but for the majority of my young childhood we were restricted to using the Macintosh machines that filled the room next to our library. In the past 3 years I have gone back to this phase in life, and have become an Apple man…I love the things. In any case, recent news about the changes Apple is going to be making have made me a bit distraught.

It seems that Apple will be changing some of its well known traditions in order to compete with the current market and economic trials and tribulations. The biggest change, is the deletion of the annual Macworld presentation by Steve Jobs. Everyone knows what I’m talking about, and if you don’t, you aren’t a true Apple fan.

Each year Jobs has done a bare bones, yet ultimately titillating, presentation where he showcases the new items Apple is putting out in a tradeshow type atmosphere. The audience is spellbound by his audiovisual presentations, and in fact the videos that are then put up online receive MANY hits, even after the news has become common knowledge. It’s this tradeshow presentation that has become a keystone in Apple’s core demographic draw (At least from my perspective). I feel that keeping this tradition going has given them a great pull in the market, especially when they unveiled their iPhone back in 2007.

After the show stores were already getting in orders and over the coming months the company sold millions upon millions of the Smartphone gadgets. Same goes for the iPod, the iMac line, and the MacBook and MacBook pro. Everyone has become attuned to the “One More Thing…” line that is usually when Jobs unveils his newest pet project, and wows the technical universe.

This coming January will supposedly be the last of these presentations, and Jobs wont even be the one doing it, instead his marketing chief Phil Shiller will take the reins for what is thought to be the last of the Macworld presentations, and thus the end of an era.

Rumors have been shot around that this is due to Jobs’ health problems (a cancer survivor who has looked progressively skinnier in recent months), or perhaps they are trying to save money due to economic hardships as everyone else has (Apple just posted recently that it TOO is seeing a decrease in sales)…but whatever the case may be…we are seeing a shift in a mighty entity…and it will be a sorely missed element of the Appleverse.