While Steve’s decision to play hooky during his keynote presentation may have hung a black banner over the whole of this year’s San Francisco Macworld Expo,we’re still holding out hope for big things from Apple’s final Macworld Expo appearance. Sure Phil Schiller has a tough act to follow, but even if his solo gig bombs, we’ll always have the good and not-so-good of Stevenotes past:

iCEO
When Steve Jobs made his triumphant return to Apple in 1997, it was at Macworld Boston when he greeted his adoring fans, who gave their interim CEO a prolonged standing ovation. Three years later--after already taking the company in bold, new directions with the iMac and iBook--he dropped the "interim," added a lowercase "i," and proclaimed (to another extended ovation): "It’s the best job in the world." The rest of the keynote was dedicated to something called OS X, but Steve had us at, "You guys are making me feel funny."

TiBook
Few Apple products were as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as the Titanium PowerBook G4, unveiled in 2001. Unlike anything the industry had ever seen, the TiBook shaved the PowerBook G3's girth down to just 1 inch,added a 500MHz G4 processor, slot-loading optical drive, and flipped the illuminated Apple on its head. But what really set it apart from the crowd was Jonathan Ive's industrial design, with clean, painted lines, two-tone metallic flourishes, floating hinges and recessed keys,all built around a crisp, "mega-wide," ultra-bright display that redefined portable. Of course, Steve neglected to tell us the hinges would break and paint would chip, but would anyone have really cared?

Sunflower iMac
So what if Time spilled the beans a few hours early? Long overdue to replace its aging, bubble-butt ancestor, the sunflower-inspired iMac was an instant classic, even if most of the audience already knew what it looked like. A brilliant design that still turns heads today, the iMac G4 was a testament to simplicity and, as Steve so succinctly put it, “a beauty and grace that’s gonna last the next decade.” As it rose out of the floor and rotated ever so seductively, enticing the crowd like a runway model as its proud papa beamed in the distance, we all knew Apple was here to stay.

iPhone
The rare Macworld Stevenote that made little more than a passing mention of the Mac, the 2007 keynote will forever be remembered for Jobs’ tantalizing, almost whimsical lead-in to the iPhone capped off with: “Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products ... a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet communications devices. ... Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone.” We hadn’t even seen the thing yet, and already we wanted one.

Power Mac G3
After transforming the consumer desktop just eight months prior, Steve set his sights on Apple’s pro model for his 1999 Macworld SF keynote. Already a robust machine but showing signs of age, Steve retired the boxy, PC-ish tower and unveiled a stunning design that would serve Apple through to the G5 (save some graphite and a mirror or two). With a hinged side door for easy access to the motherboard, sturdy handles for portability, and sleek, industrial accents, the lengthy introduction to the blue-and-white G3 (which included His Steveness' first public Intel bake-off) proved once and for all that Apple was on a mission to make the desktop exciting again.

Burton Amp Jacket
Sandwiched in the 2003 Stevenote between Final Cut Express and Airport Extreme was the biggest “Huh?!” moment of the conference. Back when the iPod was still trying to find its footing, Apple teamed with Burton Snowboards to create the "the world’s first and only wearable electronic jacket with an integrated iPod control system." To make matters worse, the $499 covering--or a shade under a grand when bundled with a 20GB iPod--was rendered obsolete three months later, since Apple apparently forget to add iPod 3G connectivity for the jacket that Phil Schiller so recently described as "so cool."

iPod mini
The year was 2004, and the masses already had one foot on the iPod bandwagon. So, when rumors began to swirl around the release of a smaller, possibly colorful, more affordable iPod at Macworld, all eyes were on Steve, who broke out his patented "One more thing" for the occasion. And what a thing it was: small, lightweight,aluminum-wrapped, vibrant, Clicky and super-cool. What wasn’t so cool was the price (which Steve oddly unveiled before showing us what it looked like): $250 for just 4GB and no dock. The crowd was so stunned,they barely applauded. Of course, that didn’t stop 100,000 people from pre-ordering, but imagine how many $199 impulse buys Apple missed out on.

14-inch iBook
About an hour before the flat-panel iMac G4 dropped everyone’s jaw, another release induced more than a few yawns. Answering calls for a more full-figured consumer portable, Steve took the wraps off the 14-inch iBook, which was, well, a 14-inch iBook. With the same resolution,processor and hard drive as its 12-inch little brother (but a slightly more robust battery), the bigger ’Book wasn’t quite what we were hoping for. Wisely, Apple split the difference and hit the sweet spot with the 13-inch MacBook, but we’re still scratching our heads over the 14-inch iBook.

BYODKM
We didn’t expect a G5. And we certainly didn’t think $499 would include a Mac and a Studio Display. But when rumors of a low-cost Mac grew louder in the days leading up to the 2005 Macworld San Francisco Stevenote, we figured Apple would at least supply a keyboard and mouse. A product introduction that began with Steve asking, “Why doesn’t Apple offer a stripped-down Mac that’s more affordable?” ended with many would-be switchers rummaging through their attics for a spare PS/2 to USB adapter.

Randy Newman
With all due respect, we were hoping for a little sweeter cherry on top of last year’s keynote than the one we got: a performance of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and some shameless cross-promotion for Jobs’ other company. We were able to deal with John Mayer’s metrosexual crooning following 2007’s classic iPhone presentation, but Randy Newman after the above-our-pay-grade MacBook Air was just too much. And now that we know it was Steve's lasting Macworld image, we’d like it stricken from the record altogether.