After having over a 20-year presence at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft claims that the 2012 show will be its last. In an announcement by corporate vice president Frank Shaw, he explained that the timing of the show in January does not align well with Microsoft’s product news milestones. While Microsoft will still participate in the show as it is a great place to connect with partners and customers, it will no longer be involved in delivering the keynote or having a booth at the show.
With the demise of Comdex, the focus has been on CES; and computer companies from the industry have gravitated to CES as the show to be seen at. While Computex in Twain is still the big show in Asia, it, too, has grown smaller over the years, as has Cebit in Germany. Microsoft has also been involved with those shows on a much different scale recently.
Our suspicion is that going forward Microsoft will take a page from the Apple playbook and host its own events for making announcements and showing things off, rather than vying for exposure and presence at a huge show like CES. At CES, everyone is fighting for the spotlight and journalists can only cover and write so much. With your own show you get journalists to cover and write a story just about your products, news and event. We can see how this is appealing to Microsoft going forward.
No more keynotes or booths going forward
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David Stellmack
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