In a statement released three days ago by Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s corporate communications vice president, Microsoft will no longer be giving the keynote presentation or have a booth at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) after 2012. CES takes place this year January 10-13 in Las Vegas, Nevada and is expected to attract over 140,000 attendees. Shaw attributes the withdraw to timing of products being released by Microsoft, saying:
We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.
Shaw also poses the question in his statement, “Are we doing something because it’s the right thing to do, or because “it’s the way we’ve always done it”?” The withdrawal of Microsoft from CES will undoubtedly be a large change in the atmosphere of the event. It will be interesting to see what effect this change will have on number of attendees and possible future success of the event as a whole. Xbox has attended and made key brand announcements at CES for close to 20 years, so this will be a large shift in perennial events for them.
Shaw said numerous times that they are not cutting ties from the Consumer Electronic Association completely and that Microsoft looks forward to a healthy, working relationship with them in the future, but just not at CES in their former capacity. The 2012 keynote address to kick off CES this year will still be given by Microsoft and will take place on January 9th.
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