More panic over Jobs' health is wrong reaction

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will not be attending trade show Macworld after January. Steve Jobs will not be giving the keynote. Apple's stock dropped 5% after hours on the news.

It is too bad. There was no reason for the shares to drop. As has been pointed out in the past, the Apple board would probably have to disclose any problem with Jobs' health. The trade show business is a dying breed. The firm made its reasons clear in a statement: "The increasing popularity of Apple's Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways."

Trade shows are an ineffective way to promote products especially in an age where they can be shown over the web.. Many of the people who come to the exhibit halls are just tire kickers. Participating companies can spend hundreds of thousand of dollars on elaborate displays and personnel.. And, for what? A modest amount of promotion.

Jobs may have an excellent reason not to speak next month. Apple may not have a blockbuster product to release. That would make his appearance "ordinary", and that is not Steve Jobs.

Time for Apple investors to settle down.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.