Steve Jobs skips Macworld; Apple denies health rumors

— -- Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Philip Schiller, will take Jobs' traditional place on stage. For years, the Jobs speech before the Mac faithful has been part of Apple's marketing mojo.

"This threw us a curveball," says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. Apple shares fell almost 3% to $92.79 in after-hours trading.

Speculation immediately centered on the health of Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor. "Is this a smoke screen to obscure something more important, which could be Steve Jobs' health?" asks Joe Wilcox, editor of the Apple Watch website.

But Creative Strategies President Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst, says Apple's board would say something if there were anything relevant health-wise that would have caused Jobs to pull out. "I've got to take it somewhat at face value."

Apple said trade shows have become a very minor part of how it reaches its customers. Apple says it reaches more than 100 million customers online and through its retail stores.

"It doesn't make sense for us to a make a major investment in a trade show we will no longer be attending," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling says.

Bajarin says Apple has been talking about leaving Macworld for two years. Apple believes "they should be able to launch products on their timetable, not force it at a specific show," he says.

Moreover, because the economy is so weak, it might be difficult for Apple to make its customary big splash in January with a major product announcement, tech analysts say. "If you're not planning on making a whole lot of news, what's the benefit of putting Steve on stage?" asks Jupitermedia analyst Michael Gartenberg. "That just draws attention, and you'd have the audience trying to analyze Steve's body mass from 100 feet away."