Without Jobs, those kinds of things aren't happening. And it's starting to show.

The format of Apple's announcement this week was all . The look and feel of the stage and slides. The opening with big achievement numbers, then moving into products in that unique Apple way. The cut to the big video with Apple VPs in a bright white room gushing about every detail. The bringing down of the Apple store. Every element -- the secrecy, the clue-filled invitations, the cryptic banners, the journalist blacklists, the uncontroversial-but-reasonably-hip musical performance -- was something that Jobs thought to adopt as he crafted his own unique approach to announcing products.

Most of all, an Apple announcement used to give you the feeling that Jobs had worked all year to make sure he could drop three or four surprises so mind-blowing that the entire room would gasp in unison.

There were no big surprises at this week's event. There was big information, but we already knew it all. And there were surprises, but they weren't big ones.

With Jobs on stage, Apple announcements left the audience feeling electrified. This announcement left people feeling let down.