Microsoft says next month's 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the world's largest consumer technology trade show, will be its last as both a keynote presenter and exhibitor.
"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," said Frank X. Shaw, corporate vice president of Microsoft corporate communications, on the company's blog.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBCUniversal.)
Traditionally, Microsoft head honcho — in times past, Bill Gates, and now Steve Ballmer — has been the kick-off keynote speaker of the annual event, which drew more than 140,000 attendees last year, and will be held Jan. 9-13.
In a statement requested by msnbc.com, the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on CES, made it sound like more of a mutual decision:
In the fourteen years that we have invited Microsoft to deliver a keynote address at CES, the company has unveiled some great innovations, from operating systems to gaming platforms to mobile technologies, Both CEA and Microsoft have agreed that the time has come to end this great run, and so Microsoft will not have a keynote at the 2013 CES.
When Microsoft talks about not having a "booth," that's not insignificant — in the past, its booth has taken up pretty much an entire exhibit hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where part of CES is held. The company has also previously erected large tents on the convention center grounds as well.
Shaw said that Microsoft asked whether it was continuing to do the show "because it's the right thing to do, or because 'it's the way we've always done it?'"
The answer, he said, is, "As we look at all of the new ways we tell our consumer stories — from product momentum disclosures, to exciting events like our Big Windows Phone, to a range of consumer connection points like Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft.com and our retail stores — it feels like the right time to make this transition."
Steve Jobs made a similar decision for Apple, when he said starting in 2010 the company would no longer participate in the Macworld trade show. (Apple has never participated in CES, although its influence is definitely present.)
Microsoft, Shaw said, "has enjoyed a close-to-20-year working relationship with the Consumer Electronics Association," and "we look forward to working with CEA for many years to come."
Said CEA: "Microsoft is an important member of CEA and we wish them all the best as they evolve their plans for new ways to tell consumer stories. "
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