Dear Friends,

We finally got some snow up here in the Green Mountains. Naturally, it was on a day that I had an early morning appointment in Montpelier at the State House. I made it in time, but the driving was tricky. We got over three feet up on Prickly Mountain.

I looked out the window last night and saw the huge snow pile on the top of the hot tub and managed to convince my granddaughters to shovel it all off so we could get in the tub. They worked really hard and soon we were able to relax in the snowstorm. Next, I convinced them to join me in diving into the snow bank before scrambling back to the hot tub. That kept them entertained for a while!

We are gearing up for the upcoming sales tax holiday here in Vermont on Saturday March 6th. I was testifying at the legislature before the Senate Economic Development committee on a new form of corporation—the “for-benefit” corporation that makes it possible to embed a commitment to people and planet as well as profit into a corporate charter. The senators were interested in that testimony but were also very interested in our preparations for the tax-free day.

We have some great offers for this special holiday and have even managed to bring in some of the short-supply 27-inch i7 iMacs. (See them here.) We also have a limited number of Apple factory-refurbished MacBook Airs, 17-inch MacBook Pros and 2TB Time Capsules coming in next week. Remember, every day is a sales tax holiday if you do not live in Vermont!

I guess my comments about my short visit to Macworld struck a nerve. I got a few emails, chats and phone calls from people that felt I was being too negative. I have asked my friend and publisher of Tidbits, Adam Engst, to write a short response below. I should make it clear that my comments were based upon my perspective as an Apple reseller. Macworlds have traditionally been the place where we had meetings with Apple well into the night, along with huge parties put on by bit vendors with lots of opportunities to meet overall. I’ve been to just about every Macworld so I do have some perspective here. In a former company, we used to exhibit and sell at Macworld, too, so I’m no newbie.

I do not think that Macworld will serve this function—an industry gathering—without Apple’s participation, and that is what my comments were meant to portray. Perhaps it can survive as a consumer-oriented exhibition with the speakers and seminars that are associated with it. I hope that this is the case, but I still believe that those who are looking to make deals and meet with vendors for reselling opportunities will be looking at other venues (such as CES). The vendors that I talked to who were disappointed were primarily looking for reseller partners, not necessarily those who were looking to showcase their products to the public.