Washington  - There's disappointing news for Apple fans - CEO Steve Jobs will not be delivering the keynote speech at Macworld Expo in January 2009, which will also be Apple's last year at the trade show.

Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, will give the opening address at the show, which will be held from January 5-9 in San Francisco, Apple said in a statement Tuesday.

"Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers," the statement said.

The company has been steadily scaling back from other trade shows such as Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

More than 3.5 million people visit Apple's retail stores each week, and along with its its website, the company said it directly reaches more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative ways.

"The knee-jerk response from Apple watchers is that there's nothing worth Steve being there for," Jim Grossman, an analyst at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, an Appleton, Wisconsin-based firm that owns Apple shares, told Bloomberg financial news agency.

"Then there's the conspiracy theories that there are political problems between Apple and the people who hold the conference, or that Steve isn't feeling up to it. I would prefer them to be more forthright in their strategy, so as an investor I don't have to worry about which it is," Grossman said.

Jobs, 53, has given the keynote address at 11 Macworlds. There has been much speculation about the health of the iconic company founder who had surgery four years ago to treat pancreatic cancer.

In October, a false report on CNN's citizen journalist website that Jobs had suffered a heart attack sent the company's stock on a roller coaster ride and prompted a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

"It's totally unexpected," analyst Gene Munster told Bloomberg. "It's insignificant that they're backing out of Macworld, but it's significant that Steve Jobs isn't giving the final keynote." (dpa)