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Did Apple pull the major announcement (the “one more thing”) from this year’s Macworld Expo keynote in anticipation of Steve Jobs’ health announcement?

My reasoning goes like this: First, Apple had something really cool to announce at Macworld Expo 2009. Something that would have taken up the big empty space at their booth. We heard rumors that after the Expo, Apple was going to announce a new Mac mini as well as something so big that the rest of the news would pale beside it. A Mac netbook? Opening the iPhone to other carriers? We couldn’t find out.

Now, Apple must have known that the lack of a truly big announcement at Macworld would send their stock down. So why not announce it then? Because Steve knew he was going to have to take a leave of absence, which was an even bigger downer. “The last hurrah,” they’d have called it: one last thing before Jobs leaves his company floundering for months! And then stock prices go down even further.

So, what if the plan was this: Take the hit from the keynote and from Jobs announcement. Let that play out in the press and then ta da! An announcement of both a new version of a popular product (Mac mini) and this “Next Big Thing” to boost confidence that Apple can run just fine sans Steve.

Pure speculation on my part, of course, but it’s hard to believe that even if Apple wanted Macworld Expo to die, they would squander a press opportunity like that one.