Microsoft’s CES no-show: Epic fail or epic foresight? - mcdanielalsorombicks

It should've been awkward. This year's CES is the first show since Microsoft's amicable break with the Consumer Electronics Association. Redmond cut deep ties, giving up an annual Booth in a marquise shock place, and sidelining the propulsive duo of Ballmer and Gates, who had warm up the crowd at 15 of the knightly 18 porta keynotes. Going in to this yr's show, we expected the ambiance to match that first uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner party after your parents get divorced.

Boy, were we dishonourable. Or rather, tales of Microsoft's departure have been greatly exaggerated—though the company's reduced presence may just now be a sign of things to come for CES.

A non-conspicuous petit mal epilepsy

The HiSense booth occupying the movement-and-center spot once held aside Microsoft's mammoth displays may sting kayoed like-minded a sore thumb to longtime attendees, but if you handle to overlook that, you'd almost imprecate Microsoft is silent the belle of the CES ball.

Steve Ballmer put in a surprise appearance at Qualcomm's first keynote, passing the metaphorical torch. Ballmer talked ahead Limb-powered Windows devices with his usual exuberance, while Windows Chief financial officer/CMO Tami Reller took the level at a JP Morgan Technical school Forum to announce that the companionship has sold-out 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. She didn't reveal how many of those licenses have landed in the laps of actual users, but those are the first hard(ish) adoption numbers Microsoft has provided since Windowpane's 8's one-month Saint Mark.

Steve Ballmer just couldn't throw in the towel cold turkey.

Much importantly, Microsoft's manufacturing partners undergo been toiling waving the Windows 8 fleur-de-lis with vigor.

Lenovo, Asus, Vizio, Samsung, Acer and others undraped dozens of new Windows 8 devices, umteen of which sport hybrid-style designs that blur the short letter between laptop and tablet (or desktop and pill, in whatsoever cases). Razer formally announced the Windows 8-powered Razer Edge, a.k.a. the single most powerful and funky looking tablet we've ever seen. (Discrete nontextual matter FTW!) Intel, the other uncomplete of the ages-old Wintel hegemony, showed polish off low-index processors that promise to hike up the battery life of the next generation of Windows tablets and laptops similar—and announced that all Ultrabooks bearing next-gen Haswell CPUs as wel have to sport a Windows 8-amicable touchscreen display. Heck, Microsoft software even made Major waves in the automotive section, thanks to the extensive promotion of Ford's SYNC, which prominently displayed Microsoft's branding.

"It's almost like they're hither," Rob Enderle, corpus analyst at the Enderle group. "I think the strategy to back away from this a little bit and lease their partners carry the lode has been a good one."

A missed opportunity?

Redmond's hardware partners may be picking up the limp gracefully, simply at least one analyst feels Microsoft is missing a major opportunity to promote its new operating system, which has landed with more of a thud than a bang despite Tami Reller's license gross revenue proclamation.

With Microsoft gone, OEM hardware led the Windows 8 charge at CES.

"The show would be complete with Microsoft here," says Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "I really intend Microsoft has to continually show—and demonstrate to the industry—that Windows 8 is a growth political platform and not a dying legacy program. Instead, it was up to Intel and OEMs like Lenovo to tell that story." Moorhead also says that industry insiders haven't been negative about Microsoft's absence, however. "Actually, I haven't heard such (about Microsoft) at wholly."

A possible canary in the CES char mine

Microsoft's decision to dump CES wasn't a shock, however. While the company's title that "our product word milestones generally don't align with the show's Jan timing" certainly rings true, it's also safe to enjoin that computer science takes a big backseat to other industries at CES, where home electronics, appliances, and automotive trends capture a much larger spotlight.

Dell and HP have also decided to sit on the sidelines of CES 2022. Simply couch, it appears equally though some PC companies sustain concluded that their selling dollars might be better spent at more tightly focused events with a more attractive signal-to-noise. Did you know that CES keynote address slots are sold-out to the highest bidder?

"Attending CES as an exhibitor—let alone drawing a squelch at CES—involves disbursement a great deal of money," says Wes Milling machine, an psychoanalyst at the independent Directions connected Microsoft. "I conceive Microsoft emphasized it last year when they proclaimed their change in agenda; they'd rather spend money building buzz and selling on their have rather of trying to be heard over the din of CES."

Indeed, the biggest titans in the industry are no-shows across the instrument panel at the Consumer Electronics Show. Perceptibly missing from these crowded halls are Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, which all devote much Thomas More attention to crafting meticulously planned in-house events and product announcements. (Facebook just declared one for January 15, in fact.) Microsoft's Surface tablet unveiling and the launch events for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 show the company swerving down a similarly monolithic path.

Asus' booth at CES: What, did the show start already?

Chit-jaw from OEMs World Health Organization are actually at CES suggests that they may follow holding back their big guns for February's Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, strengthening the theory that the glitziest electronic show on earth may not be the best stead to announce flagship mobile surgery PC products. (Microsoft launched the inaugural Windows 8 Consumer Prevue at MWC 2022.) LG showed off an NFC-enabled washing machine, but said its new smartphones won't be disclosed until MWC. Similarly, Asus' somewhat dull CES booth is basically a proxy in advance of a "huge" MWC for the company. Samsung uttered similar remarks to The Querier, explaining its conclusion to highlight fridges with Evernote integration rather than kick in-ass mobile devices. So that's where each the smartphones throw disappeared to!

Spell Microsoft may so be missing a high-profile opportunity to beat the Windows 8 drum firsthand, the company's partners are doing a keen caper in its stead—and the fact that those same OEMs are belongings back their own high-profile production announcements for more tightly focused events proves that Microsoft's absence at CES may just read more well-nig the deal out show's role leaving forward than it says about the remove software giant. CES ain't dying anytime soon, simply it's No longer necessarily the premier event for the PC ecosystem. App-powered appliances, though—that's a different story.

For more than blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation's largest consumer electronics she, check out complete coverage of CES 2022 from PCWorld and TechHive.