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Apple is pulling out of the Macworld trade show, the company announced Tuesday, and CEO Steve Jobs will not exist giving his annual keynote.

After nearest month’session Macworld event, the iPod maker will no longer participate in the confab that was designed solely to showcase products from Apple and its partners. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will give the keynote speech in Jobs’ place.

Representatives for Apple and the Macworld trade pomp did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But the take aback announcement follows rumors with respect to Jobs’ health. At a conference in June, Jobs appeared gaunt, sparking questions about whether he was suffering protracted effects from his bout with pancreatic cancer four years ago.

Jobs, who returned as CEO of Apple in 1997, gave the keynote speech at the former 11 Macworlds, using the gathering of Apple fans to introduce products such as the iPhone and MacBook Air. A no-show by means of Apple’session CEO may mean the visitors has no major new products to conference about or that Jobs is unwell, said Jim Grossman, an algebraist at Thrivent Financial since Lutherans.

“The knee-jerk reply from Apple watchers is that there’s nothing worth Steve being there for,” uttered Grossman, whose firm owns Apple shares. “Then there’session the conspiracy theories that in that place are political problems between Apple and the people who hold the conference, or that Steve isn’privately feeling up to it. I would prefer them to be more forthright in their strategy, so as an investor I don’t have to worry about which it is.”

“It’session totally unexpected,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “It’s insignificant that they’re backing uncovered of Macworld, still it’sitting significant that Steve Jobs isn’t giving the final keynote.”

Apple shares dropped $2.55, about 2.7 percent, to $92.88 in after-hours trading, after gaining 68 cents to end the regular session at $95.43.

Jobs told members of Apple’s conclave in July that he is cancer-free and was dealing by nutritional problems after his cancer surgery, The New York Times reported at the appropriated time, citing people close to Jobs. The assemblage has declined to comment on Jobs’ health, saying it is a special matter.

“I’m more concerned about him not doing the keynote than this being the last year at Macworld,” said Chuck Jones, an algebraist with Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management in San Francisco, which owns Apple’s shares. “Him not sentient there is a pertain to.”

Jobs, who shows up in jeans and black turtlenecks and dominates Apple’s events, has increasingly turned over the stage to his lieutenants.

In October, when Apple unveiled new versions of the MacBook notebooks, he shared the podium with Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook, considered the No. 2 executive at Apple, and grand product designer Jonathan Ive.

“You’d think he would want to do the last show for succeeding generations,” said Rob Enderle, president of the research firm Enderle Group. “The certainty it isn’t him suggests a problem of some kind.”

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008528753_macworldjobs17.html?syndication=rss