CES 2022 faces many defections, which cut the event from several major exhibitors. AMD, OnePlus and MSI are the latest in an endless list.
Tech players attending CES 2022, raise your hand, please? Yes, we have one on the left, ah, another on the right … By dint of registering withdrawals, it seems that we are heading more and more towards a Consumer Electronics Show without much flavor. CES 2022 was to mark the return of the great mass of new technologies after a 2021 edition which had been experienced online only, with necessarily less enthusiasm.
Omicron variant scares tech giants away
After Microsoft and Google, the list of absentees has grown more in recent hours. American chip designer AMD, Taiwanese gaming computer maker MSI and Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus have announced their withdrawal from CES 2022. Giant Procter & Gamble (Oral-B; Tampax; Always; Braun; Febreze ; Dash; Gillette, etc.) has also announced that he will not be attending the event.
AMD, which indicates that it has given careful thought to making its decision, and OnePlus have announced that they are branching out into online participation only. Same story with MSI: ” The health and well-being of our employees, customers and fans is our top priority. Therefore, we have decided not to “physically” participate in CES, and we will be joining the show virtually with our online product launch. “
All the companies that forgo participating in the Las Vegas electronics show bring up a common argument: COVID-19 and the scale of the Omicron variant. The latest figures communicated to the United States (and relayed by the New York Times) report an average of 267,305 daily cases and 74,962 hospitalizations in the past seven days, with an increase in cases of 126% over 14 days. Nevada, a relatively spared state until then, is no exception to this new wave, with contaminations which have climbed 65% over the last two weeks. Many exhibitors fear that the large gatherings planned for CES will make the situation even worse.
Particularly noteworthy defections… which may help young shoots to emerge from the shadows
For now, CES’s organization, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), has still not even scratched the surface of the possibility of an outright cancellation of the physical event. With just one week from the start of CES 2022, it now seems unlikely that the organization and the authorities will reverse, especially since the Democratic Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak, himself dubbed the event no later than December 27 in the press. But it seems obvious that some spaces will appear quite empty, after carrying out a small inventory.
They threw in the towel to focus on online participation only:
- Amazon and Ring
- Google and Waymo
- Microsoft
- Intel
- Lenovo
- Meta (Facebook)
- Microsoft
- NVIDIA
- AT&T
- T-Mobile
- The post office
- TikTok
- iHeartRadio
- GM
- AMD
- Oneplus
- MSI
They have not yet given up their participation:
- LG
- Sony
- Samsung
- IBM
- Panasonic
- WarnerMedia
- Verizon
- Qualcomm Bosch
- Mitsubishi, etc.
The absence of renowned players in the new technologies sector remains in any case a boon, even an opportunity, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, which, for some, will benefit from better exposure on the spot and will leave the market. shadow.
Source: Reuters
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