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The mavens of all things Mac are all a-flutter this week: what is the cosmic significance of Apple’s (read: Steve’s) choice to bail on Macworld?  Is this a sign of the Apple-ocalypse?  Another sign of global warming?  Will the city of San Francisco now ask for a government bailout? Is Steve OK?

First, if Jobs’ health was at issue here, the chance of Apple’s lawyers risking disclosure problems with the SEC by going all Kremlin on us, especially in today’s environment, are virtually zero.  Second, the era of the self-propelled mega event is over.  Even for Apple.  There are simply more efficient ways to market and sell today, and the grand master of them is none other than the Grand Master himself, Brother Jobs.  Look for Stealthy Steve to come up with Marketing Event 3.0, probably using some dimension of Web 2.0.  Or, hell, maybe unveiling Web  3.0.   

Remember: If there’s one thing Apple has done as well or better than anybody in business history, it is to create and deliver customer value.  The issue probably occurred to Jobs years ago: Does this gig really create and deliver value today?  If so, for whom?  Can we do something better (read: more valuable)?  I suspect the answer was yes.  It’ll be fun to see what it is, then to watch competitors try to copy it.