MacWorld Expo conducts 4 shows per year, approximately 3 months apart from each other in Paris, Tokyo, San Fransico, and Boston. These four events mark the typical release dates of new products from Apple, though some releases have occured at WWDC, or other such events. MacWorld Expo provides a showroom effect for thousands of vendors, and generally promotes the Macintosh cause by allowing software and hardware developers a chance to meet with a large populace of Macintosh users.