CES 2022 is still scheduled to happen in Las Vegas early next month, but it will be missing some of the major players that were expected to appear.
According to various reports numerous companies will not be visiting the show in person due to the surge in COVID-19 associated with the Omicron variant.
So far:
- Telecoms T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T will significantly limit their physical presence at the show if not eliminating in-person visits altogether.
- Social media platforms TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest and Meta have also canceled in-person appearances at the show.
- Other companies that have pulled out from in-person appearances include Amazon, Nvidia, iHeartRadio and others.
“After careful consideration and discussion, T-Mobile has made the difficult decision to significantly limit our in-person participation at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show,” T-Mobile announced in a statement. T-Mobile will continue to serve as a sponsor and the keynote it is scheduled to give will be done virtually.
Amazon echoed a similar statement and cited the “quickly shifting situation and uncertainty around the Omicron variant.”
Nvidia, which was also scheduled for an in-person keynote, will now deliver it remotely as well.
At last year’s CES, the show was offered in a virtual format for the first time in its history. The format has only 2,000 exhibitors, which was way down from the 4,400 exhibitors that participated in the in-person show the year before.
Many companies chose not to participate at all and those that did had a significantly lower presence than in previous years where in-person viewing was dominant.
CES 2022 will take place virtually as well as in person in Las Vegas on January 5-8.
