What is CES?
CES® is the world’s most prominent technology event, serving as a testing ground for ground-breaking technologies and worldwide innovators. CES features consumer technology devices, content, technology delivery methods, and more from manufacturers, developers, and suppliers.
It also includes a conference programme where the world’s most influential corporate leaders and forward-thinking thinkers discuss the most pressing challenges in the industry.
Due to an increase of COVID-19 cases in the United States, CES, the world’s largest technology expo, appears to be in peril. Following declarations from T-Mobile, Amazon, Meta, and others that they’d be skipping the event, Lenovo stated on Wednesday evening that it would “halt all on-site activity in Las Vegas,” despite CES organisers’ claims today that the show will go on.
T-Mobile was the most well-known exhibitor to pull out of the show early on. One of the major presenters at the Consumer Electronics Show, CEO Mike Sievert, declared publicly on Tuesday that he would no longer be giving a keynote and that he would “seriously curtail our in-person involvement.”
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Amazon has opted not to attend the expo in person, and Axios’ Ina Fried reports that AT&T pulled out on Wednesday.
Hisense usually has a major press conference and has a large presence in the LVCC’s central hall, but on Thursday morning, the company announced that it will hold a totally virtual press conference on January 4th “to ensure the health and safety of our team.” The company intends to have a stand during the expo, with in-person walkthroughs for attendees and virtual walkthroughs for those covering it from afar.
Microsoft has declared that it will not be attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 in Las Vegas, which will take place early next month, due to an increase in Omicron-related Covid instances around the world, particularly in the United States.
From January 5-8, the Satya Nadella-led IT firm will have a digital presence at the event for the ‘Microsoft Partner Innovation Experience.’
“Microsoft has decided not to participate in-person at CES 2022 after examining the most recent statistics on the quickly shifting Covid ecosystem,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement.
While the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the show’s governing body, plans to hold the event, major tech companies, including Lenovo, T-Mobile, AT&T, Meta, Twitter, Amazon, TikTok, Pinterest, and Alphabet’s Waymo, as well as several media sources, will not participate.
Google and Intel have added their names to the growing number of tech corporations that have decided not to attend the ‘CES 2022’ in Las Vegas in person.
Google’s outdoor exhibitions have been a staple of the Las Vegas Convention Center for several years.
Meanwhile, despite the withdrawal of big brands, Samsung stated that it still intends to attend CES. Samsung stated there will be no changes to its on-site presence, especially because its new CEO Han Jong-hee will deliver a keynote speech outlining the company’s vision for its path in technical growth.
The question of “will they or won’t they cancel due to COVID” has taken a long time to resolve in the past. Even when partners continued to cancel, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the first big tech exhibition to go on after the COVID-19 epidemic hit, held out for a long time.
MWC 2020 was ultimately cancelled by the organisers. The MWC 2021 in-person edition was also cancelled by major tech corporations. In contrast, CES 2021 was completely virtual.
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