here's what I think
Apple leaving Macworld has nothing to do with Steve Jobs. Period. It has to do with them figuring out that it's more cost effective to do announcements locally like they did the notebook event. so now that's the game. have their own sked for releases and do the announcements on their turf.
Steve not giving the big speech has nothing to do with his health. He is as fine as anyone missing half his intestinal tract could be (hint, that is why he is thinner than he was before the cancer). It has everything to do with the world thinking he's the only brain at Apple and the company will fall apart the day after he leaves. This obsession with his health and the resulting bad mouthing is killing the stock prices and costing him and everyone else a lot of money cause they all own stock in the company. He has been bringing folks on stage to show that there are other brains in the company so that the stock price won't drop $20 every time he coughs and his retirement fund will stay strong.
THere is no iPhone Nano. there is no going back to an Edge only phone, no non smart phone. there is no next huge thing to be released. what there is is a lot of stuff that is in dire need of updating -- the mac mini, the imacs, the mac pro, the apple tv, iwork and ilife (although I personally hope all that online stuff is bogus cause it feels like a very bad idea), mobile me. with the economy hurting the way it is, now is not a time to release some huge and expensive new toy. it is, however, a perfect time to improve on what is out there. lower prices a little, or raise the specs so there's more bang for the buck. cause with money as tight as it is, getting value out of your purchase is on a lot of minds way more than having a cool new, never seen before tech toy is.
so if the IDG banner is a hint of anything Apple related, I think that it is that the things announced will be small but there is a big list of them.
