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PCMag reported late last week that the CEA has announced they’ve sold out their section devoted to the “Mac” for CES 2010. The iLounge Pavilion, as CES is calling it, sold out in one week, so CES had to quadruple the size to accommodate the demand.

The speed at which the CEA has managed to fill the area—devoted to manufacturers of iPod and iPhone accessory manufacturers—has surely signaled that, at the very least, Macworld Expo 2010 will be a stripped-down, stark contrast to its predecessors…

4,000 square feet was initially designated for the space. The CEA has since expanded the area to 18,000. The organization has also announced a handful of vendors that will exhibiting in the area, including Griffin Technology, Mobis Technology, Pro Clip USA, Scosche, and Incase Designs.

Can the demise of Macworld, which is traditionally held the same week as CES, be far behind?

And so, the PC web vultures have already starting circling.

A couple things that Brian Heater, writer of the article, gets wrong are that CES is not selling “Mac space.” The iLounge is set up specifically for iPhone/iPod accessory/software developers. This has nothing to do with the Mac. Also, it’s certainly not uncommon for developers to exhibit at both shows, which any of the examples provided by Brian could certainly do. In fact, Griffin, Scosche and Mobis did that this year, so the announcement that they’ll be at CES in 2010 doesn’t really mean anything…yet.

There’s certainly trouble ahead, after all, and it’s likely that most iPhone/iPod exhibitors will abandon a smaller Macworld Expo for the larger crowds of CES. I’ll be curious to see how the extra foot traffic will play out for those who leave Macworld for CES. Will the larger number of attendees lead to better sales and brand recognition, or will their products and announcements get buried under the vast array of competition at a show where people just aren’t really there to see what’s up next for the Apple devices? Likely, that’ll depend upon the vendor and their products.

Either way, this will likely leave us with Macworld that actually seems to focus on the, you know, Macintosh, but whether that’s enough to keep the show running past 2010, we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meanwhile, IDG has announced that general attendance for Macworld Expo 2010 will be free, and they’re already accepting attendee registrations. They’ve also set up a Macworld user community and are soliciting suggestions on how to make Macworld 2010 a better event. Feel free to sound off, but for the love of all that’s holy, let’s forgo the Macworld Texas suggestion, okay?

Via [PCMag]